SAFE-INJECTION SITE WAY TOO TRENDY FOR DOWNTOWN EASTSIDE'S JUNKIES

The Downtown Eastside media conference yesterday to unveil what's been
billed as North America's first safe-injection site was, well, so west-side
Vancouver. It was a triumph of radical chic over street reality, of hope
over experience.

For one thing, the site wasn't really a drug-injection site -- despite the
six spacious stalls with mirrors, stainless-steel basins and
sterile-looking drug kits proudly on display.

For another, funding for the planned $500,000-a-year operation (designed
for as many as 300 addicts daily) has not yet been secured.

And, as I discovered yesterday, the 100-block of East Hastings, where the
site is located, is one of the city's worst not only for drug crime but for
car accidents.

Indeed, Vancouver police say that between Jan. 1, 1997, and Dec. 31, 2001,
there were 79 reported accidents, 40 of which were pedestrian-related.

"This block recorded the highest number of accidents in the city of
Vancouver in 2000 and the second in 2001," wrote Insp. Ken Frail last May
while explaining temporary parking restrictions in effect today (at least
in the evenings).

The problem seems to be that drivers tend to get distracted.

Steps away from the proposed injection site is the Balmoral Hotel and a
store selling Triple X videos and rubber dildos.

Yesterday morning, however, we media lambs were lured into a pleasant, airy
place (apparently owned by a Korean businessman) that looked like a cross
between an art gallery and an Ikea store.

And we were serenaded by a soulful, female folk duo called Po' Girl (short
for Poor Girl), which didn't look too shabby to me.

Fashionably dressed, thirtysomething host Liz Evans told us she represented
Health Quest, composed of concerned "property owners, community members and
drug users."

She quickly acknowledged the safe-injection site was, in reality, a
"potential site" -- a demo, in other words. "This safe-injection site was
built as a demonstration some time ago and we offered it to the
[Vancouver-Richmond] Health Region on Friday," she said.

But, the ex-nurse tiptoed around how it would be financed: "For us the
issue isn't cost. For us the issue is that people are dying, and who can
price the value of a human life?"

Worthy words, indeed.

However, a police source tells me the overwhelming number of Downtown
Eastside addicts aren't, in fact, intravenous drug users. They're folk who
smoke crack cocaine in alleyways. And they tend to be too impatient to line
up for their drugs.

Dean Wilson, president of the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users,
disagreed. "A lot of people are coming back to injecting," he said.

But, down the block, Internet cafe cashier Gerry Robertson felt any
safe-injection site wouldn't make much difference to local drug users: "I
think they'll just go where they want anyway."

And I strongly suspect that this latest proposal by a trendy,
well-intentioned "non-profit" group to improve life in our notorious drug
ghetto will come up sadly short.