PERRY MAKES SOLID IMPRESSION ON DRUG USERS

Every Wednesday night, Garth Perry buys dozens of kaiser buns and
fills them with dozens of slices of meat. One pouch of tobacco is
divided into 10 parts to be raffled off at the end of the meeting. The
freebies help keep the drug users fed and coming back each week.

Since early March, a group of current and former intravenous users
meet once a week at the Little Fernwood, where they get together to talk
about their problems and their lives.

Talk, and eat Perry's sandwiches.

"We try to educate people on what we can do now to affect people with
addictions," said the outreach worker whose day job is at the Fernwood
methadone clinic. Hoping to fill a gap in treatment for intravenous
drug users, Perry was inspired in part by the groundbreaking
documentary Fix: The Story of an Addicted City.

Perry started the group with funds from of his own pocket, but when
the Vancouver documentary became a hit in Victoria last month, he
cashed in on moviegoers' generosity. After each show, a hat was passed
around the Odeon asking for donations. In the end, about $5,100 was
raised and the group that brought Fix to Victoria -- including city
councillors, health workers and others -- decided the money should go
to the fledgling group SOLID: Society of Living Intravenous
Drug-users.

Perry said that the group is designed to give support to current and
former users and to educate them about the dangers of drug use. The
group talks about how to inject safely, how to clean up after
themselves and how to get help if it's wanted. The also discuss the
danger of AIDS and hepatitis. And sometimes they just talk -- about
their lives, self-esteem and about the fact that "there's people out
there that care," Perry said.

So far, he has about 50 people signed up. And he's got the interest of
Victoria city council, including Charlayne Thornton-Joe, who said
Perry will be making a short presentation to council next week.

"I think it's important that we know what's being done out there," she
said of the presentation. Perry says he won't be asking for a grant, he
just wants to educate councillors about his group.

Thornton-Joe was on the committee that decided to give the Fix
fundraiser money to SOLID. She said they chose the group because it's
working directly on some of the issues discussed in the documentary.

"We didn't just want to bring a show over and show it," she said. "We
wanted to put some perspective in the whole thing." Victoria needs to
address its situation before it gets out of hand, she said.

Some of the users who attend the group also work with Perry each
morning as they scour the city, looking for used needles. They also
pass out clean needles as they go. That's meant not only to clean up
the city, but to offset the limited hours of the local needle
exchange.

Perry said that while some might come to the meeting under the
influence, no one is using drugs while they're at the meeting.

And it's against his rules for anyone to use drugs while they're out
giving away new needles and cleaning up old ones.