PLEA MADE TO SAVE VANCOUVER'S NEEDLE EXCHANGE PROGRAM

Health and city officials are scrambling to get a street-operated Downtown
Eastside needle exchange for drug addicts back on track after police raided
the operation, seized a tent and tables that they said didn't have the
necessary city permits, and claimed that volunteers at the booth were
engaged in criminal activity.

"We're trying to see if we can reach a compromise so we can continue to
have the needle-exchange operation," said Tara Wilson, a spokeswoman for
the Vancouver Coastal Health Authority.

Several health officials, including provincial medical health officer Perry
Kendall and the authority's medical health officer, Dr. John Blatherwick,
made presentations to the Vancouver police board Thursday about the health
benefits of the needle exchange, which is the only one that operates at
night in the city. It distributes about 1,200 needles each night from 8
p.m. to 6 a.m.

Health studies have indicated that lack of accessibility to needles is the
major cause of needle-sharing among drug addicts, a practice that is
directly linked to the spread of diseases like HIV and hepatitis C. Wilson
said the health authority doesn't want to interfere in police work, but it
wants to find a way to separate their pursuit of criminal activities from
the needle ex change's operations.

City deputy licence inspector Barb Windsor said Friday the city is trying
to work something out with police so that at least the tent and tables can
be returned on an interim basis.

The exchange, which is staffed by volunteer members of the Vancouver Area
Network of Drug Users under the auspices of the health authority, has
operated for the last two years under an informal agreement between the
city, health authorities and the police.

Windsor said the city had no problem with the tables and tent, since they
were clearly part of the drug strategy that the city is supporting. But now
that police have made an issue of it, the health authority will have to go
through a development-permit process that will take several months to complete.

In the meantime, officials from the Vancouver police department are
insisting that the department has no problem with the needle exchange
itself, or the city's "four-pillar" drug strategy, which includes an
emphasis on harm-reduction initiatives aimed at trying to improve addicts'
health.

"We absolutely support the concept of the needle-exchange program and other
health initiatives," said Detective Scott Driemel. He said the issue of
possible criminal activity by volunteers at the table is still under
investigation, but no one has been charged.

Police officers had conducted undercover surveillance at the table last
Friday, which operates in the middle of Vancouver's notorious open drug
market at Main and Hastings, where up to 200 people often mill about,
buying and selling drugs. They said they observed one volunteer smoking
crack, one steering the undercover officer to a dealer, and both warning
people if uniformed police were in the area. They then brought in eight
officers and a paddy wagon to shut down the exchange, confiscating the
tent, tables and chairs.

But Dean Wilson, president of the drug users association, said the police
just seem to be engaged in petty harassment of the exchange because they
are frustrated with drug dealing on the corner and their inability to stop it.

"If anyone did anything, then charge us," Wilson said. "I think they're
just trying to stop us from operating."

Wilson said it's far-fetched to think that anyone at Main and Hastings
would need to be "steered" to a dealer, as police say one volunteer did,
when there are usually at least a dozen dealers milling around on the
corner, calling out "up," "down," "rock" and other street names for heroin
and crack.

He said the volunteer accused of smoking crack didn't smoke it at the
table, but went around the corner on a break to smoke.

Wilson said the needle exchange is continuing to operate.

"We're just doing walkabouts for now."

There appears to be little slowdown in business. The volunteers, carrying
around the needles in backpacks, distributed 1,100 between Thursday night
and Friday morning, he said.

The police raid ruptured a fragile working arrangement among police, social
agencies and government that is aimed at trying to reduce health problems
and crime created by the intense concentration of drug dealing and
addiction in the area.

Police Inspector Ken Frail, who oversees operations in the Downtown
Eastside, said after the raid that police were concerned about criminal
activity at the needle-exchange tent. But he also expressed personal doubts
about the effectiveness of a needle exchange run by addicts.