MAYOR'S PLAN TO EXCLUDE OUT-OF-TOWN USERS SHORT-SIGHTED

Vancouver Mayor Larry Campbell's plan to restrict supervised injection site
use to area residents is a noble one -- but ill-conceived.

Denying medical care to everyone but a select bunch of city slickers
undermines certain rights and freedoms afforded all Canadians under the
Charter of Rights and the Canada Health Act.

But first some background; Campbell was in Zurich this week checking out
Switzerland's most trafficked injection site, one which hosts 220
'consumptions' a day, of which 160 are needle injections, 40 are cocaine
and heroin smokers and the rest snort the junk.

The supervised site's purpose, according to Zurich's social department
director Richard Blattler, is not to rehabilitate or treat addicts, but to
remove a nuisance from the streets, reduce the potential for overdoses and
transmission of diseases, and lastly, to make services available should one
want to kick the habit. (It's unknown how many, if any, do. Stats aren't
complied. Users come and go as they please.)

To protect confidentiality while deterring an onslaught of addicts from
other regions of the country, the facility requires but one piece of
identification; a card confirming they are a resident of Zurich.

"We do not become magnets for addicts," Blattler assured his international
guest.

"We do not find our safe injection rooms are honey pots."

Politically appealing? Campbell thought so. But while screening addicts for
residency qualifications as a means of keeping costs in line may work in
Europe, it's unlikely to appeal to Ottawa or Victoria. Neither government
is apt to back a project that discriminates against a class of people, one
that ignores the Canadian principle of 'mobility rights' and of offering
comparable social and health programs to all.

Not to rain on Campbell's parade, but there is another obstacle to his
'carding' concept: Quantity control. Smooth operators are adept at
producing plausible imitations of passports, drivers' licences and even
$100 bills.

A card, similar to that issued to city library users, isn't likely to
stymie these counterfeiters.

Back to the drawing board, Campbell.