VANCOUVER GROUP CRITICIZES POLICE, SOCIAL PROGRAMS FOR DRUG PROBLEM

VANCOUVER (CP) - An alliance of business and resident groups wants an end
to government-funded needle exchange programs in Canada's poorest
neighbourhood.

The newly formed Community Alliance, which represents 13 business and
resident groups from neighbouring areas, is also demanding Vancouver police
start enforcing the law in the 30-blocks of Vancouver's downtown eastside
that are home to about 9,000 junkies.

"Instead of solving the problems, we're spending half a billion dollars a
year on programs where the situation is getting worse," said Bryce Rositch,
chairman of the new group.

The group says it doesn't want any more provincial or federal money spent
on social programs that "facilitate drug use."

"On my way over here today from Gastown, I went past junkies lying in the
street doing drugs," Rositch said.

"There's open drug use, open drug dealing."

Mayor Philip Owen said later he is imposing a 90-day moratorium on permits
and applications for facilities for drug users in the downtown eastside.

He said he wants a cooling-off period so all parties can discuss the
situation.

The alliance news conference was cancelled after screaming protesters
disrupted the meeting and refused to leave.

"They want to push us all out of this community," yelled Jeff Summers, one
of three protesters later arrested and removed from the Chinese Benevolent
Association building where the news conference was to take place.

"They don't even want to talk to us, they don't want to look at the
community down here . . .. They just want to get rid of us."

Most large Canadian cities have a skid row frequented by drug addicts and
alcoholics. But Vancouver's is without compare anywhere else in the
country.

The downtown eastside is said to have the highest HIV-infection rate in the
developed world.

The rampant drug use has contributed to the spread of tuberculosis,
syphilis, hepatitis A, HIV and AIDS and hepatitis C.

At any time of day addicts are crouched in doorways shooting up or sitting
at graffiti-covered bus stops smoking crack.

The abundance and variety of drugs attracts users from all over British
Columbia and even from other parts of Canada.

Vancouver police say they do enforce the law in the downtown eastside as
they would anywhere else.

The problem is, "in the rest of the city where this occurs, it's sporadic
and few in number. In the downtown eastside it's constant and there are
many" drug users and sellers, said acting Chief Const. Gary Greer.

The police support social programs including needle exchanges and a
proposed resource centre for addicts, but they do not endorse safe
injection sites, he said.

There is not sufficient treatment or support services for addiction in the
province, Greer said

Police focus on arresting drug dealers, rather than users, he said.

"The reality is, we would just overwhelm our already overworked courts."

Activists advocate a more liberal approach to drug use, such as is
practised now in the Netherlands, Switzerland and some other European
countries.

They want safe injection sites, methadone programs and treatment centres.

The Vancouver-Richmond Health Board has also advocated such programs.

"It seems as if common sense has been lost," said Dorothy Barkley of the
Victory Square Property Owners Association.

"Maybe what we need is instead of trying all kind of fanciful social
solutions is to return to the equal application of the law in all
neighbourhoods and to cease the support and maintenance of illegal drug use
and dealing."

Barkley said emaciated junkies are a daily sight for her as she drives
through the neighbourhood bordered by touristy Gastown and prosperous
Chinatown.

"It's a tragedy. And all of the various social engineering that has been
practised to this stage has not provided any solutions. What we have is a
war zone."