REHAB CENTER COULD SAVE LIVES: CORONER

B.C.'s chief coroner says Vancouver Mayor Philip Owen's moratorium on
new projects for drug users is trapping the Downtown Eastside in an
escalating cycle of drug-overdose deaths.

"Time means that people are dying," Larry Campbell said Monday.

The moratorium means a multi-service resource centre planned for
Powell Street has been put on hold, and Campbell said it might have
saved lives had it been able to open.

"It's a possibility there may be less [deaths] with the resource centre
in place... If it works the way it should, we would expect that many of
the people would be getting their medical care or referrals to
agencies," he said.

"[But] the same people who are shooting up in front of the businesses,
the needles and the disease processes -- it's going to continue, it's
not going to end. We just simply can't use 'status quo' because ...
it's not going to help the residents."

Campbell, who retires next month, said Canada's poorest neighbourhood
is worse off today than it was when he became a coroner in Vancouver
nearly 20 years ago.

The death rate due to drug overdoses then was 10 or 15 a year -- a
startlingly high rate for Canada. Vancouver continue to set records in
this category -- in the first five months of this year, 131 drug users
died.

Last week, Owen called for a 90-day halt on permits and applications
for facilities for drug users, after the Community Alliance -- a new
coalition of 12 groups representing business and property owners in
Gastown and Chinatown -- argued too much money is spent on harm-
reduction and social programs, with few positive results.

Owen has said the break will allow the city to lobby Ottawa and
Victoria for more money, so the three levels of government can develop
a comprehensive plan for the Downtown Eastside that ranges from harm
reduction to treatment programs.

The moratorium halts progress on proposed facilities for the Downtown
Eastside, such as a drop-in program in the Roosevelt Hotel, near Main
and Hastings, aimed at getting addicts off the street.

It also delays the opening of the Powell Street resource centre, which
was much farther along in the planning stages and would have linked
drug users to health care and other services.

However, Campbell said the resource centre alone would not have
drastically lowered death rates. He said the area needs more
facilities, such as methadone programs, counselling, heroin
maintenance trials, treatment beds, and detox centres.

Campbell believes drug overdose deaths escalated because governments
responded too slowly to the crisis, and followed the U.S. model of
criminalization rather than European harm reduction measures.

Changes are slowly being made, but they will take time and money.
"People have to consider this as an investment in the future. It is
hopefully to prevent what we see right now taking place in the future,"
said Campbell, who has lobbied for years to have governments ease the
plight of drug addicts.

But the three levels of governments seemed far from an agreement on
Monday.

B.C. Community Development Minister Jenny Kwan said the province was
poised in July to announce $74 million for the Downtown Eastside, for
housing, health services, detox centres and treatment facilities,
expansion of methadone programs, employment initiatives and business
ventures for residents.

The announcement was put on hold because the city was not in agreement,
said Kwan, who called last week's moratorium a surprise.

Federal NDP MP Libby Davies (Vancouver East) acknowledged there is more
governments can do to help Downtown Eastside residents, but said
postponing the opening of the resource centre is no way to speed things
up.

"I think it is really short-sighted and foolish to hold up things that
have already been approved," Davies said.

"People on the streets who have been promised government resources
will be dying."

Davies said she has arranged a meeting with Health Minister Allan Rock
to discuss issues such as clinical trials for heroin maintenance
programs, based on European models.

Owen was on holiday and unavailable for comment Monday.

Deputy mayor and city councillor Lynne Kennedy dismissed Davies as a
"non-player" who cannot bring any money to the city. She accused Kwan
of playing politics, noting she had never heard of the $74 million
plan.

"For the province to be blaming the city, saying we're the hold-up, is
absolutely ridiculous. It's just passing the buck."

If Vancouver doesn't get financial help from Victoria and Ottawa at the
end of 90 days, Kennedy said, "the city will just have to walk away.

"This is not where we want to be. We are desperate for a solution," she
added.

Bryan Alleyne, president of the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users,
said people are dying on the streets as politicians argue about time
and money.

"People are really fed up with the waiting, the wanting and the
needing," Alleyne said.

"It's not saving lives. Right now, this is more of a danger to the
community than a good."