MAYOR SEEKS PROOF OF CRACKDOWN'S SUCCESS

Campbell Gives Police Three-Month Time Limit Before Committing Money

If Vancouver police can show at the end of three months that their
crackdown on the city's open drug market is effective and isn't causing
harm, the city might look at giving them money to continue it, Mayor Larry
Campbell said Wednesday.

In statements at odds with the rest of his council, Campbell said the
police have worked closely with the city and the Vancouver Coastal Health
Authority to develop a strategy that is part of a comprehensive,
"four-pillar" approach to the city's drug problem.

His councillors say they can't support the current police crackdown because
it isn't being co-ordinated with the harm-reduction or treatment parts of
the plan and some of them are blaming the provincial government for not
coming up with the money for safe-injection sites for drug users.

But Campbell is taking a different approach.

"I want to see if it's money worth being spent and, if it is, we'll find
it," he said.

And Campbell said that, so far, he has as many people calling the city to
say they approve of the police action as people complaining about it.

He added that it's a police decision about how to police the city.

"They have a responsibility to maintain law and order and we do have an
open drug market," said Campbell, who was criticized Tuesday in council
chambers by Downtown Eastside activists who said council should not have
allowed a change in police enforcement on the drug market until a safe
injection site is in place.

While health advocates and activists say the police presence will force
drug users into more unsafe practices that will lead to more infections and
overdoses, Campbell said that is already happening.

He said he hopes a safe-injection site will be open by the end of the
police department's three-month assault on the open drug market.

All of that is in contrast to what every other councillor had to say about
the crackdown Monday and council's unanimous decision Tuesday not to
include any money in this year's budget to continue the project.

Police said they would pay for the first three months of the crackdown out
of their own budget, but were looking to council for $2.3 million to
continue it until the end of the year.

All 10 councillors interviewed by The Vancouver Sun said that an increased
police presence in the Downtown Eastside is premature unless the other
three pillars of the four pillars approach to drug addiction -- treatment,
prevention and harm-reduction -- are in place.

"When you have a police action like that, what happens is that you drive
the dealers out into other communities and other dealers come in to take
their place," said Ellen Woodsworth of COPE. "You're not addressing the
source of the drugs. You're attacking the little people."

The NPA's Sam Sullivan agreed, saying: "I do believe there is a legitimate
place for enforcement as a pillar, but for enforcement to work, you have to
disentangle the sickness from the criminality."

Sullivan said society is making the mistake of treating the drug crisis as
a moralistic problem, when he believes it is a health crisis.

Fred Bass of COPE applauded the police for their willingness to try to
tackle the problem, but added: "Do I think enforcement alone will do it?
No. This is basically a social, medical, economic and enforcement problem.
And it makes no more sense to address this one aspect without the others,
than it would to do only one of the other legs."

The NPA's Peter Ladner said there may be a disconnect between police and
council on the issue.

"I think there is, yes," he said. "I can't speak for everybody, but I think
a lot of people on this council understand that we're dealing with a health
problem, an addiction problem that can't be solved simply by enforcement.

"I think the police are as frustrated as anyone else, and the only tool at
their disposal is enforcement.

"But unfortunately without court backing, the tool of enforcement simply
becomes intimidation and in some cases brutality. There's no question that
some people in the Downtown Eastside are being badly treated."

COPE's Jim Green said while he appreciates that people in the Downtown
Eastside are as concerned about crime as anyone else in Vancouver, an
increased police presence on its own does nothing to save lives in the area.

"The main reason for the four pillars is to save lives. Number two is to
rebuild a community in distress.

"The police are acting as one pillar. I don't think it's doing anything to
save lives. It may very well transgress people's lives."