HEALTH MINISTRY CASH STARTS INJECTION SITE CONSTRUCTION

Interim Survey Of Health Services For Drug Addicts Shows Minimal Disruption
Of Use Of Services Despite Major Police Crackdown On Open Drug Market

Construction has started on Vancouver's injection site for drug users,
thanks to money that has come through from the B.C. health ministry.

As well, the Vancouver Coastal Health Authority has rented additional space
on East Hastings Street to create a larger site than originally envisioned,
says Heather Hay, director of health services for the Downtown Eastside.

The site, which will be the first of its kind in North America, still needs
approval from Health Canada to be exempted from the normal provisions of
the country's drug laws.

In the meantime, an interim survey of health services for drug addicts in
the Downtown Eastside indicates there have been only minor impacts because
of a police crackdown on open drug dealing that began April 7.

The police crackdown has caused significant concern among community and
health advocates, who say that Vancouver's drug strategy was supposed to
ensure the city's addictions problems were tackled with a new,
multi-faceted approach that didn't just rely on police enforcement.

They have warned that police crackdowns end up having negative health
impacts on drug addicts, who use more dangerous methods to pass drugs from
one person to another and to inject.

And they've said the crackdown, which is supposed to be focused on major
dealers, is in fact turning into general harassment of any users or
low-level user-dealers, who are then reluctant to go out onto the street to
get to health services.

An internal memo from the health authority notes that Vancouver Native
Health and street nurses are reporting seeing fewer people or having a hard
time making contact with their usual patients.

However, the interim survey found no indications that fewer people are
coming into the downtown health centres for methadone or antiretroviral
medications. The coroner's service reports six deaths from overdoses since
April 7, the same number as in April 2002. As well, the Downtown Eastside
Youth Activities Society has reported no drop in its needle-exchange service.

Another group, the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users, which distributes
needles on the street as opposed to using a van and an established clinic
like DEYAS, has reported its needle and condom distribution patterns have
dropped drastically since the police action.

Hay said the survey isn't meant to be definitive.

"It's really difficult to find rigorous facts in this environment," she
said. "We've done what we can to do an environmental scan."

Hay said that while the statistics indicate the number of people using the
health system has remained relatively stable, "we still don't have a good
understanding of the impact on those not accessing the system."

Hay said the authority will continue to monitor the impact of police
activity during the crackdown, which police have said they will continue
until July 7. After that, any continuation of the special anti-drug-dealing
effort will depend on their own assessment of its effectiveness and whether
council provides money to keep it going.

Criminology studies from other countries have indicated that police efforts
to break up established drug markets are complex efforts that can produce
unintended negative consequences.

One study from Sydney, Australia documented through street observations
that when a police crackdown was in effect, addicts and dealers began
storing drugs in their noses and mouths, stopped carrying injection
equipment with them since it only attracted negative police attention, and
injected in more dangerous ways, using water on the street or not testing
their drugs to get a sense of the strength.

All of those practices are more likely to lead to infections or overdoses.

As well, the 1999 study, published in the British Journal of Criminology,
indicated that the drug market in a police crackdown became unstable,
bringing in more novice or risk-taking dealers who were more violent. It
also developed more sophisticated patterns, using more people or "drive-by"
drug dealing.