B.C. TO DEVELOP SWEEPING ADDICTION-SERVICES POLICY

An Expert In The Field Says The System Is In Need Of A Complete Overhaul

A comprehensive addiction-services policy ranging from prevention to
treatment and including drugs, alcohol, gambling and cigarettes will be
developed by March 1, the province announced Monday.

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

The chairman is Dan Reist, executive director of the Association of
Substance Abuse Programs and author of a report earlier this year on
addiction services for the Kaiser Youth Foundation.

Reist said the province's current approach to addiction services is failing
and "clients are falling through the cracks" more from poor coordination
than lack of good intentions or programs.

The foundation, originally called the Kaiser Substance Abuse Foundation,
was created in 1985 with a $3-million endowment from businessman Edgar
Kaiser Jr., the former Bank of B.C. chairman, after his own daughter beat a
drug problem.

Kaiser, who was beside MacPhail at the news conference, said the system of
delivering addiction services in B.C. needs an overhaul from the ground up.

Completion of planning for such a detailed overhaul in just over two months
is a daunting challenge for the task force, which meets for the first time
Thursday in Vancouver.

"We're overwhelmed by the magnitude of the job given us," confirmed Kaiser,
whose foundation will coordinate the task force and provide office and
secretarial support.

Part of the work will include tracking the success or failure of programs
currently in place, he added.

MacPhail said the task force will work closely with the city of Vancouver,
which released its own 31-point plan in November modelled on the
"four-pillar" approach of some European cities -- enforcement, prevention,
treatment, and harm reduction.

The city's most controversial recommendations include consideration of
drug-injection sites and endorsement of a medical experiment in giving
heroin to hard-core users.

Vancouver Mayor Philip Owen said he fully supports the province's decision
to strike the task force, adding the quick deadline indicates motivation to
make changes sooner than later.

"We need to rationalize all the provincial services," Owen stressed.

"Fragmentation -- everyone doing their own activity -- isn't very effective."

The Kaiser foundation report in May concluded B.C.'s drug and alcohol
programs are poorly coordinated and fragmented.

The report's indictment: "Inconsistent and under-funded education and
prevention efforts. Wasted opportunities for intervention. Inadequate data
collection and research capacity on which to base good decisions. Waiting
lists for counselling and for treatment."

MacPhail's task force will draw on the positive experiences of addiction
services around the world, while creating a model that is flexible enough
to allow for changes in the future.

MacPhail would not commit the government to accepting the task force's
recommendations, but denied the timing of the report so close to the next
election is an attempt to get the province off the hook.

"I expect we'll be government when the report comes out," she said, noting
the province currently spends $150 million a year on the direct costs of
addiction. "We can't avoid the tough decisions."

Among the task force members are provincial health officer Dr. Perry
Kendall; Art Steinmann, executive director of the Alcohol-Drug Education
Service; Warren O'Brian, director of community development for AIDS
Vancouver; Chris Kitteringham, clinical manager of the addiction program at
B.C. Women's Hospital; Ray Baker, chairman of the B.C. Medication
Association's addiction medicine committee; and Mary Clifford, director of
health for the Prince George Native Friendship Centre.