DRUGS AND HOUSING THE CRITICAL ISSUES

With its spectacular ocean views and majestic mountains, Vancouver is a
picture postcard city. But in recent years, another portrait has been
painted over the backdrop, a hazy sketch of agony and angst, of
syringe-riddled arms and of wasted bodies littering the streets, waiting to
die.

It is the Downtown Eastside. The picture is not entirely true, but the
truth is bad enough. As the Downtown Eastside is a focal point of this
civic election, we have identified two critical issues on which immediate
action is needed: the drug problem and housing for the poor.

As far as drugs are concerned, the numbers also paint a picture, and it is
ugly: 6,000 charges for drug trafficking were filed in B.C. in 2000, up
from 3,200 in 1993; the Vancouver Needle Exchange handed out 9,500 needles
in 2000, nearly double the number dispensed in 1995. And 23 per cent of
injection drug users are infected with HIV, a five-fold increase from five
years ago.

Everyone agrees, then, that Vancouver has an escalating drug problem, but
that's where the agreement ends. Some favour a zero tolerance policy, while
others prefer an approach that combines treatment with harm reduction.

Whichever side you're on, one thing is certain: Our current "strategy" is
one of neither enforcement nor harm reduction.

Drug possession has been effectively, though not legally, decriminalized:
Only 17 per cent of drug-related charges were for possession, while
trafficking accounted for 82 per cent. And with jail sentences for
traffickers averaging 50 to 60 days, there's little to deter individuals
from this lucrative lifestyle. Moreover, treatment centres are woefully
inadequate and safe-injection sites are nonexistent.

This sorry state of affairs must end. We have repeatedly expressed our
support for Mayor Philip Owen's four-pillar approach: Prevention (through
education and awareness), treatment (detox centres, outpatient counselling,
residential treatment facilities), harm reduction (safe-injection
facilities and access to methadone) and enforcement against traffickers.

While many people oppose safe-injection facilities, evidence suggests that
such sites reduce transmission of HIV and hepatitis C, decrease crime, save
public money, and help to get addicts into treatment.

Further, safe-injection facilities must be spread around the Greater
Vancouver regional district. The Downtown Eastside has long laboured under
the unfair burden of playing host to addicts from across the GVRD.

But safe-injection sites are merely a Band-Aid on the festering sore of
drug addiction. If we are to deal with the problem effectively, courts must
take decisive action against dealers and increase their jail sentences
dramatically.

And creativity is needed in developing new treatment and counselling
programs throughout the GVRD. That will require a significant commitment
from the province, and Vancouver's new mayor must be able to secure B.C.'s
cooperation.

Because it's not just addicts that need help. Vancouver has a drug problem,
and so does B.C.

Similarly, the Downtown Eastside's housing issues are much larger than the
area itself. Both the provincial and civic governments, along with private
businesses, need to make a commitment to revitalize the neighbourhood.

That revitalization requires a mixture of market and social housing.
Vancouver's new mayor must encourage the development of market housing in
the Downtown Eastside, while ensuring that the area's long-term poor
residents are not displaced.

And he or she must work to ensure that the rest of the GVRD recognizes and
discharges its responsibility by developing social housing throughout the
district.

Our new mayor must recognize that the Downtown Eastside's problems are
everyone's problems, and he or she must be able to bring everyone together,
so that we can paint yet a new picture of Vancouver, one where its social
landscape matches its geography.