INJECTION SITES WON'T WORK WITHOUT REHAB

When Vancouver's just-out-of-the-box mayor sits down with the architects of
a blueprint for drug-injection sites, I hope he'll heed the concerns of a
citizen who's only ever trafficked in words.

It's not that, as a taxpayer, I am totally opposed to helping bankroll
drug-devouring sites for some of the 4,500 junkies who daily fix on the
soiled sidewalks of the Downtown Eastside.

It's just that I am yet to be convinced that such open-air drug markets --
as touted by Mayor Larry Campbell and his predecessor Philip Owen -- will
have any impact on a drug-use epidemic that costs B.C.'s law-abiding
citizens billions of dollars in health- and crime-related costs.

For the record, I cannot claim proprietorship of all the concerns raised
here, that honour goes to Vancouver Const. Gerry Wickstead, who ranks as one
of the few who has bothered to cut away the political rhetoric to expose the
goods on safe-injection sites.

First, let's keep in mind these sites host a mere fraction of the addict
population. Most junkies take their drugs other ways; they smoke crack
cocaine or ingest methamphetamines. Whatever.

Secondly, research shows drug-consumption sites merely serve to rubber stamp
the use of illicit drugs unless they come equipped with accessible,
effective drug-rehabilitation programs -- something Vancouver has never had.
Why then, is the city's mayor gung-ho to get these sites up and running
early next year before the more urgent need for comprehensive medical and
drug treatment has been addressed?

And who's expected to pay the bill? Every injection drug addict costs the
government $33,761 a year; roughly $506 million for the 15,000 we host in
B.C., according to the city's Framework for Action document. Taxpayers are
entitled to an iron-clad financial commitment from all three levels of
government first, considering the stream of addicts migrating here.

Speaking of numbers, Vancouver's needle-exchange program distributes more
than 9,000 sharps a day. The B.C. government estimates a daily average
injection rate of 41,000. How many safe-injection sites do taxpayers have to
fund to accommodate such use?

A 1992 to '97 study by the-then South Fraser Health Authority found that
most addicts use a cocktail of substances to maintain their highs; that most
fatal overdoses involve some combination of heroin, cocaine and alcohol and
occur -- not on the street -- but in their homes or the residences of their
friends or family. So what if something goes terribly wrong at a
government-sponsored site? Who's liable?

One more thing, before I get off the soapbox; that's the issue of
enforcement. Police are going to have to be equipped to deal with the
traffickers and enforcers drawn to the area of these safe sites like flies
to sticky paper. But what's the point of cracking down when sentencing
judges make a mockery of police efforts to flush these scum from our
streets?

A paltry four per cent of those found with drugs on them in B.C. are sent to
jail.

Wickstead says part of the reason is the shortage of jail beds.
Traditionally, 10 per cent of B.C.'s 4,400 jail beds are occupied by drug
offenders. Compare that to the 6,099 adults charged in 2000 with trafficking
or importing. More than 6,000 offenders for 440 beds. Go figure.