NURSES HELP PROMOTE FILM ABOUT ADDICTS

The B.C. Nurses Union has donated $35,000 to help Vancouver film-maker
Nettie Wild show her new documentary about drug use in the Downtown Eastside.

When Wild was researching and shooting the movie Fix: The Story of An
Addicted City, she was assisted by street nurses working with injection
drug users.

BCNU president Debra McPherson said Thursday her union made the donation
because it cares "about the patients, the clients, the residents no matter
where we work."

The documentary features three main characters:

- - Dean Wilson, a former IBM salesman and drug addict who heads VANDU (the
Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users);

- - Ann Livingston, a non-user and VANDU organizer who has found spiritual
purpose in the fight to make things better for the thousands of Vancouver
users at risk of becoming the next statistic;

- - Mayor Philip Owen, who tried to introduce a four-pillar drug strategy
modelled after successful European programs. He was allegedly pushed out of
office by his own party, the Non-Partisan Association, as a result.

BCNU members who are street nurses on the Downtown Eastside, according to a
union press statement, support the four-pillar drug strategy of prevention,
law enforcement, treatment and harm reduction, which can include supervised
sites where addicts can use drugs.

Street nurse Fiona Gold said the evidence from European cities where this
approach is used, indicates that addicts are much healthier than in most
North American cities because they have access to services and are less
likely to share needles.

The BCNU money will be used to help Wild cover the costs of transferring
her film from videotape to 35-millimetre film, which is required in order
for the movie to be shown in theatres. The nurses' money will also be used
to support screenings and forums throughout B.C. about the social issues
raised in the documentary.

Fix opens in Vancouver on October 18.