DRUG-USE DOCUMENTARY HAS A MESSAGE FOR CITY

The frenetic young woman flings a sheet of cardboard onto the wet pavement.
She flops down, wriggles around, arches her neck.

Her friend, kneeling by her head, jabs a heroin-filled syringe into her
neck repeatedly. She can't find a vein. The syringe filled with blood keeps
missing its mark. It's painful to watch, but the camera never falters.
Eventually, the girl gets her fix.

Now you can get yours.

Fix: The story of An Addicted City opens today at the Cineplex Odeon on
Yates Street. The documentary takes a harsh look at injection drug use in
Vancouver's Downtown Eastside. Victoria politicians, who are struggling to
deal with a population of 2,000 injection drug users, believe it is
important for people here to see this film.

"Victoria is coming to grips with a drug problem on its streets and we
haven't had the kind of debate and discussion that Vancouver has had," said
Coun. Rob Fleming. "We're hoping it will advance community dialogue and
discussion about what the problem is and how we can craft some of our own
made-in-Victoria solutions."

Community forums, moderated by filmmaker Nettie Wild, will be held after
each screening, except those held at 9:30 p.m. This evening, former
Vancouver mayor Philip Owen, who is a central figure in the documentary,
will be a guest speaker along with Victoria Mayor Alan Lowe and street
nurse Ann Drost.

Dean Wilson, president of Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users, VANDU, who
is featured in the documentary, will attend several screenings this
weekend. Other speakers include Dr. Perry Kendall, provincial medical
officer of health, Vancouver Mayor Larry Campbell, police and outreach workers.

Fix follows the struggles of Wilson -- an ex-IBM salesman and tattooed
heroin addict -- and VANDU activist Ann Livingston to set up a safe
injection site in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside.

It also documents the last two years of Owen's career as mayor. His
advocacy of a holistic four pillar approach to the city's drug problems
cost him the support of his party, the Non Partisan Association.

"The four pillars are prevention, treatment, enforcement and harm
reduction," Owen said in an interview from Vancouver. "But harm reduction
is a whole bunch of things, and it got picked up by the media and the
public that it was just a safe injection site and that therefore you are
encouraging and enabling drug users."

Like Owen, Lowe believes in a holistic approach to drug addiction. The
political situation shown in the Vancouver documentary is very different
from that in Victoria, he said.

"I have a council that is very supportive of the different ways of dealing
with the situation."

Owen believes users are sick, dealers are evil. Users need treatment to get
them off drugs. When they start using drugs again, they need harm reduction
in the form of needle exchanges, safe injection sites, perhaps even heroin
maintenance clinics.

"We have injection sites in Victoria and Vancouver," said Owen. "We have
them all over the place. They're on the streets. They're in the lanes.
They're in Beacon Hill Park. But they're not safe, and drug addicts are
shooting up in the public realm and the public are cheesed off about it.

"If there was a safe injection site, police could say, 'you're not allowed
to shoot up here. You have to go into that facility and do it off the
street.' When they're in there B.C. nurses could look after them."

Addicts could be told they need detox. The nurses could suggest using
methadone.

"They can craft something to get them off that habit for even a temporary
period of time and get their life turned around," said Owen.

While U.S. President George W. Bush pushes forward with his war on drugs,
mayors in Canadian and U.S. cities on the West Coast think it should be
abandoned, said Owen.

"The lack of understanding on this issue is scary. In the meantime,
downtown Victoria, Vancouver, Campbell River, Nanaimo, Penticton, Dawson
Creek, Fort St. John are all suffering with it in our backyards."

Adults and high school students in Grades 10 through 12 should see the
movie and learn about drug-policy reform, he said.

"We have to get informed. We have to understand the complexities of drug
addiction. The more the public understands and wants change, the more the
politicians are going to have to listen."

A limited number of free tickets will be available for each show for those
in need. These can be obtained from the AIDS Vancouver Island Needle
Exchange which is open Monday through Saturday 3:30 p.m.-6 p.m. and 7
p.m.-11p.m., and Sunday 7 p.m.-11 p.m. For more information contact 384-2366.