COMMONS COMMITTEE ON ILLICIT DRUG USE HEARS FRUSTRATION FROM EXPERTS

VANCOUVER -- It's time to stop talking and do something to stem the
devastation of illegal drug use, experts appearing before a Commons special
committee on the issue said Monday. "There's been enough reports and enough
talk about what we should be doing and what intervention should be taking
place," Dr. Mark Tyndall told reporters after his bleak report to the
committee.

"The ideas are out there now and it's time to get moving on some of them."

Tyndall was one of several witnesses slated to address the committee over
the next four days in Vancouver and Abbotsford, in British Columbia's
Fraser Valley.

It was established in May with a mandate to study the factors underlying
the non-medical use of drugs in Canada and recommend ways to try to reduce
the problem.

Tyndall, from the B.C. Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS, has been the
director for the last two years of the Vancouver Injection Drug Users Study
that follows 1,400 injection drug users who live in Vancouver.

He said 35 per cent of the participants are HIV positive and more than 90
per cent are infected with hepatitis C.

Tyndall and several other experts urged the committee to consider
"harm-reduction strategies" such as safe-injection sites that are already
in use in several European countries, as well as needle-exchange sites,
which have become commonplace in Vancouver's notorious Downtown Eastside.

He rejected the notion by some who believe harm-reduction strategies
encourage drug use and entice others to start.

"There is absolutely no evidence to support this from the (Vancouver) study
or from other cities that have adopted a harm-reduction approach," Tyndall
said in his presentation.

The director of the Kaiser Foundation, Dan Reist, echoed Tyndall's call for
action.

"We've been around this cycle many, many times and hopefully the problem is
well enough understood," said Reist, whose foundation tries to help
communities and families reduce the harm of substance abuse. "So the public
is beginning to demand action."

Reist told reporters the public has heard "endless debates about whether
harm reduction strategies, such as safe-injections sites and needle
exchanges are the way to go, or whether traditional treatment is the way to
go."

Both have a role to play, he said.

"The point is, let's make sure we have the appropriate services at the
appropriate places to meet all the needs of those who affected by substance
abuse," said Reist.

New Democrat MP Libby Davies, who represents the Vancouver East riding that
includes the Downtown Eastside, said she also is frustrated at perceived
inaction.

"I have an incredible amount of impatience and urgency," said Davies, one
of only five MPs out of 13 on the committee to attend Monday's session.
"There's been so many reports and so many experts' opinions."

British Columbia was the committee's third stop and Davies said she has
detected a theme.

"The overall message from everybody is that the status quo is not working
and Canada's drug policies are not working," she said.

Society has been bound to a law-enforcement model "and it's only in the
last few years we've begun to realize the folly of our ways. We're dealing
with a public-health issue."

Reist said he believes the public is becoming increasingly dissatisfied and
is ready to try once-controversial harm-reduction strategies.

When the reasons for radical intervention are pointed out clearly to the
public, "the population comes on side," he said.

"We've seen significant shifts in readiness of the average Vancouver
citizen to accept strategies they would have thought radical a few years
ago," said Reist.

Safe-injection sites are "up and running" in several countries, including
Switzerland and Germany, said Tyndall.

"They have excellent data to show they've been effective in reducing
injection-related infections and overdoses," he said.

The committee is to table its report in the Commons by November 2002.