HEROIN EXPERIMENT REMAINS IN BUREAUCRATIC LIMBO

CAST Program Supporter Says Federal Health Minister May Be
Responsible For Slow Progress

Nineteen months after it was launched, the non-profit society created
to drive Mayor Sam Sullivan's drug treatment plan has yet to receive
approval from the federal government to begin trials.

And the former executive director of the Inner Change Society wonders
whether federal Health Minister Tony Clement's continuing criticisms
of the city's supervised injection site is linked to the lack of
action. "He has definite concerns about [the mayor's] project, and
he's said so in many different ways," said Richard Mulcaster, who
remains a board member of the society. "He doesn't seem to want to
answer letters or meet or talk about this. So you kind of feel that
it's obviously not within his vision or moral whatever it is."

If Clement was supportive of "tight as a drum" research on drug
addiction, then trials would likely be underway in the city, said
Mulcaster, who was executive director of Inner Change from July 2007
until this past January.

He said the society sent requests to the Canadian Institute of Health
Research, a branch of the federal government, to begin trials. So
far, the government has shown an interest in a trial that would
involve heroin addicts. Mulcaster said the plan would be to
experiment with giving a group of addicts injectable heroin while
supplying another group with hydromorphone, an analgesic drug.
Treatment would also be included in the trial.

Initially, the trial was geared for 200 addicts, but the federal
government said the society should consider doubling the number and
include Montreal in the trials. For Mulcaster, the government's
interest is encouraging but he can't say whether it's simply a
stalling tactic. "There's nothing [from the government] but
statements that say, 'You've got to stop using drugs'," he said.

Although Clement is clearly focused on prevention and treatment for
drug addicts, he is opposed to any type of plan that involves an
addict injecting drugs. Speaking recently at an AIDS conference in
Mexico City, Clement declared allowing addicts at the Insite drug
injection site to stick needles in their veins amounts to letting
people die slowly.

When the mayor launched his CAST, or Chronic Addiction Substitution
Treatment proposal, the objective was for doctors to prescribe legal
drugs to up to 800 drug-addicted criminals and sex trade workers in
the Downtown Eastside.

The medication would serve as substitutes for illegal drugs such as
crack cocaine and heroin, the two predominant drugs on the streets of
the Downtown Eastside. The cost of the program, type of legal drugs
and the number of doctors needed was never revealed.

Despite the society's frustration, Mulcaster said it doesn't want to
be "poking the government in the eye." The society plans to continue
lobbying the government and said wealthy private donors are still
interested in helping fund the program. He noted that businessman and
philanthropist Don Rix funded Inner Change for the first year.