50% OPPOSE PRESCRIBING HEROIN TO ADDICTS

Harm-Reduction Support Is Highest In Cities, B.C. Poll
Finds

British Columbians aren't quite ready to prescribe heroin to addicts
as a way to deal with the province's hard-drug problem. In a poll
commissioned by The Vancouver Sun, exactly 50 per cent of respondents
opposed a so-called "harm reduction" approach to heroin addiction,
while 44.3 per cent were in favour.

In urban areas most affected by the hard-drug problem, however, a
majority favoured medically prescribed heroin for addicts over the
existing policy of counselling and methadone programs.

Pollsters from Viewpoints Research Inc. asked 800 respondents from
around the province whether they support a plan to provide medically
prescribed heroin to some addicts in order to reduce drug-related
crime. Eighteen per cent strongly agreed with the proposal and 26.3
per cent agreed, whereas 17.1 per cent disagreed and 32.9 per cent
strongly disagreed.

The remaining 5.8 per cent declined to respond.

The survey, conducted between Dec. 13 and Dec. 21, is considered
accurate to within 3.4 percentage points 19 times out of 20.

"It's quite a saw-off," said Viewpoints partner Steven Bengtson of
the province-wide results.

He said the findings cut across categories of age, gender and
household income, though higher income earners were slightly more
likely to support the prescription scheme.

Respondents in the area including Vancouver, Burnaby and New
Westminster, as well as Victoria supported the policy change by 52 per
cent to 41 per cent opposed.

"That support completely evaporates when you look at the Kootenays,"
Bengtson said.

"The people who are closest to the problem are most in favour of the
medical route. This is not NIMBYism. It's the opposite."

Faced with a crisis, municipal politicians in B.C. have begun to
seriously consider treating heroin and cocaine users in a safe
environment as a way to move fixing and dealing off the streets and
reduce the property crime that drug addiction precipitates.

Vancouver Mayor Philip Owen said Tuesday he was encouraged by the
strength of support for medically prescribed heroin programs in the
region's urban core.

However, Owen stopped short of saying he personally favours providing
heroin to addicts.

"Ottawa's got to make that decision," he said Tuesday.

In November, the city of Vancouver released a 31-point plan based on
programs used in certain European cities for dealing with the drug
problem. The plan includes prescribing heroin for certain addicts.

In a meeting with the Sun's editorial board earlier this month,
Premier Ujjal Dosanjh threw his support behind the city's plan. He
said prescribing heroin may be necessary after other measures, such as
drug courts and methadone treatment, had failed.

"Safe injection sites per se won't do the job," the premier said.
"If there are people who can't be stabilized or cured or dealt with
satisfactorily in any other way, then we should look at medicinal
prescription of the drugs that they might be dependent on under safe
conditions."

But B.C. Attorney-General Graeme Bowbrick said Tuesday that education,
drug courts and additional treatment services should be considered
before heroin is given to addicts.

"Something like heroin maintenance is a last resort," Bowbrick said
Tuesday.

In November, Bowbrick visited Toronto to study Canada's only drug
court and came away impressed. He said the government is awaiting
money from the federal government to establish a similar court in B.C.

The aim of a drug court is to allow an addict to undergo treatment and
counselling, hoping he or she will kick the habit. As more addicts go
into treatment, petty crime associated with feeding expensive drug
addiction should decrease, Bowbrick said.

"It's exactly the right approach," he said. "It ends up being the
intersection of the justice and health care systems."

Bowbrick, who lives in New Westminster, said he wasn't surprised by
the 52-per-cent support for providing heroin to addicts.

Despite the media's focus on heroin addiction in Vancouver's Downtown
Eastside, Bowbrick emphasized that suburbs are also affected by drug
problems.

"The problem with drugs, and heroin in particular, is widespread,"
he added.

Bengtson suspects city dwellers support the plan because they see the
effects of addiction on their streets and feel the current policy is
not working.

"Canadians can't stand seeing problems like that. We like thinking of
that as an American thing."

Had the question mentioned the fact that harm reduction is being used
in other countries such as Germany and Switzerland, the results may
have been different, he said.

Opposition is highest in areas that strongly supported the Canadian
Alliance in the recent federal election, he added.

"There is a hard core here saying that what we really want is to stop
people from [using drugs]."

A harm-reduction model may be politically viable if pursued on a local
or regional level, he said.

"If I were the government, they certainly could get away with [a
harm-reduction strategy] in the Lower Mainland."

Two weeks ago, the B.C. government announced a comprehensive
addiction-services policy ranging from prevention to treatment and
including drugs, alcohol, gambling and cigarettes will be developed by
March 1.

Deputy Premier Joy MacPhail said an 18-member task force of addiction
experts from the senior civil service and non-government agencies will
draft the policy.