CITY'S DRUG ADDICTS FACE TIGHT LIMITS ON SERVICES

Drug addicts are shooting up, sleeping and relieving themselves in
public places around Greater Victoria.

People who try to help addicts say we shouldn't be surprised.

Some estimates put the number of intravenous drug users living in the
region at up to 2,000 - about two thirds the number in Vancouver's
troubled Downtown Eastside - and only 27 public residential treatment
beds are available.

"There's not really anywhere you can send them," said Carol Finnie,
executive director of the Victoria Cool Aid Society, a non-profit
organization that attempts to provide health care, shelter and housing
for the most disadvantaged.

The situation has become an issue at the Johnson Street parkade with
nearby merchants complaining about addicts making the area unsafe.

Still, Margaret McNeil, director of mental health and addictions for
the Vancouver Island Health Authority, said services for addicts have
actually tripled since the health authority took over responsibility
for those services from the Ministry of Children and Family
Development last April.

She said the authority is working on a "broad system of services" that
helps those in the greatest need first and works to stabilize addicts
before moving them on to the next level of help.

"At any given time, we're probably serving well over 1,000 people,"
McNeil said. "There are opportunities for people who want help. People
who want to seek help, we're able to help."

The health authority offers the Victoria Detox Centre on Pembroke
Street near Cook. It includes seven acute detox beds -- typically
holding patients for between seven and 21 days -- as well as 10 other
beds for addicts at the next level of treatment.

This Friday, the health authority will also open two five-bed
facilities, one each for men and women, for those further along the
road to recovery. It has also recently added six outreach workers in
the downtown area where intravenous drug use is highest.

Detox Centre director Patrick Reber said the facility could probably
fill as many as four times its total beds every day. "We're in the
same kind of situation as any other social intervention service,"
Reber said, adding that it costs the health authority about $275 a day
to treat the average Detox Centre client.

"But if I had 40 beds, would it make a dent in the (addiction)
problem? I'm not sure," Reber said. "It's a complex social issue."

Reber said the Detox Centre has been better off under the control of
the health authority. The Detox Centre also provides drop-in "triage"
help for addicts who come in off the street as well as day programs
for men and women. And the health authority provides a number of other
services, including counselling and housing, through its other
agencies including the Dallas Society and the Victoria alcohol and
drug clinic.

In all, the health authority's budget includes $11 million to deal
with addiction services, part of an overall budget of $66.6 million
for mental health and addiction on the Island.

Next month, the Salvation Army plans to open a 15-bed residential
addictions program centre which will house residents for between 30
and 90 days and also include an outpatient program for another 20 addicts.

But this welcome addition comes less than a year after the health
authority cut off funding to the Victoria Life Enrichment Society, the
only previous subsidized live-in treatment centre for addicts.

The fact addicts have shown up with greater frequency in places such
as the Johnson Street parkade indicates that not everybody is being
helped.

"There's no question we need more services," said McNeil. However, "a
big part of the problem is people who don't want help."

Addicts who don't want to go into detox but are nevertheless in need
of housing are in a difficult situation, say those who work with them.

"Housing is a huge issue for people on the street," said Kris Bolton,
an alcohol and drug counsellor with the Dallas Society. "Not just
housing, but housing without too many questions."

Bolton said there are people in Victoria who believe in so-called
"damp housing" being made available to addicts who are still using but
need a safe place to live.

Such housing isn't readily available here despite health authority
estimates that there are between 1,500 and 2,000 intravenous drug
users on the south Island.

Dr. John Blatherwick, chief medical officer for the Vancouver Coastal
Health Authority, said he's "not surprised at all" that addicts in
Victoria are living and shooting up in public places. He said
Vancouver's Downtown Eastside has an advantage in this respect because
of the numerous hotels that accept addicts. His health authority also
operates a drop-in centre which gives addicts a place to use bathroom
and shower facilities any time of the day or night.

"That's a reason many of them come here," he said of the Vancouver
neighbourhood with a reputation as a mecca of hard-drug use.

Blatherwick said best health authority estimates have 3,000
intravenous drug users on the Downtown Eastside, 3,000 in the rest of
the Vancouver area, 3,000 on the remainder of the Lower Mainland, and
about 3,000 in the rest of B.C. He confirmed the 1,500 to 2,000 number
for Victoria, saying "that's where the next biggest bulk of them are."

People trying to feed habits aren't likely to have money for
accommodation, he said, and that leads to other problems as have been
experienced in Victoria.

"The big problem is where do they go to the bathroom?" Blatherwick
said.

"Where do they go to the bathroom at night ... And that just adds to
the horror."