DRUG RECOVERY HOUSES NO LONGER NEED GOV'T LICENCE

B.C. is getting out of what it calls the "boarding house" business for
recovering drug addicts, Health Minister Colin Hansen said yesterday.

Hansen told The Province that paperwork has been signed to allow the
government to quit licensing supportive drug and alcohol recovery houses.

He said the establishments were over-regulated, and the long list of
requirements was keeping some legitimate operators out of business.

"Recovering drug addicts are taking care of their own health," said Hansen.
"They are not part ofthe health system."

A total of 20 recovery houses currently licensed in the Lower Mainland will
be allowed to continue but no new licences will be granted, Hansen said.

The news left Wayne, a recovering cocaine and alcohol addict, wondering
what the future will hold.

He lives in South Surrey at the Launching Pad.

"I have a way of thinking that's criminal," said the 32-year-old, who's
been in and out of jail for theft.

"I don't know where I'd be if this house wasn't available. Probably out
stealing trucks again," added Wayne, who requested that his last name not
be used.

The Launching Pad does not have a provincial licence and is unsanctioned by
the city.

Surrey's bylaws allow for supportive recovery houses, but only if they hold
provincial health licences.

The city's councillors say the province's blessing is necessary for health
reasons.

"Municipal councils are not in the health field and we don't have any
expertise in it," said Coun. Dianne Watts, who worked for four years to get
the current licensing in place.

"We'll be back to the same old problems with unregulated boarding houses:
Drug overdoses and, sometimes, staff abuses," she said.

Watts said on-site treatment is necessary so addicts won't start the
destructive cycle again.

"The issue is really the province's $30-per-night, per-room subsidy for
community care facilities," she said.

The Lower Mainland's licensed recovery houses are located throughout the
region; Eight in Burnaby-New Westminster-Coquitlam; six in Vancouver; five
in Surrey and one in Richmond.

Others are in various stages of approval under regulations brought in by
the former New Democratic Party government more than a year ago.