DOWNTRODDEN MARCH IN VANCOUVER EASTSIDE TO MARK 2,000 OVERDOSE DEATHS

VANCOUVER (CP) - Tree-lined Oppenheimer Park - with its gravel infield
and lush, green outfield - is a popular spot for softball games,
sleeping, drug dealing, shooting up and dying.

The inner-city park in one of the most drug-infested neighbourhoods in
Canada was the gathering spot Tuesday for about 200 addicts who
marched there to stand before 2,000 makeshift crosses erected to mark
overdose deaths in B.C. since 1992.

"Overdosing is the leading cause of deaths in B.C. for people aged 30
to 49," said Bud Osborn, an activist for the blighted area.

"Three years ago we marched here and erected 1,000 crosses and now
we've got 2,000," added the former heroin addict and current street
worker with the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users.

The wooden crosses provided a dramatic effect as some addicts walked
slowly between endless rows, writing names of friends and loved ones
who had died.

At the back of the park, a huge red flag with The Killing Fields
emblazoned in yellow print loomed over the crosses.

Harold House, a heroin-addicted Cree from Hobbema, Alta., stood next
to one cross marking the overdose death three years ago of his
common-law wife.

"Ninety per cent of the people I know here are drug addicts," said
House, who buys five to six heroin "flaps" a day.

"The government should look into this problem more seriously. They
should come here and look at the crosses."

Getting heroin in the area is easy and cheap and he said he gets his
drug money honestly.

"I do a lot of recycling. I don't do crime."

The markers also provided a backdrop for speaker after speaker who
chastised the three levels of government while advocating a more
liberal approach to drug use as practised now in the Netherlands,
Switzerland and some other European countries.

"These are all preventable deaths," said Osborn, who was among those
calling for the establishment of safe injection sites, methadone
programs and treatment centres.

The groups say the B.C. government spends $50 million annually on drug
and alcohol programs, while the Health Ministry's total budget nears
$8 billion.

The rampant drug use has contributed to huge increases in
tuberculosis, syphilis, hepatitis A, HIV and AIDS and hepatitis C.

Vancouver isn't unique in Canada in having a skid row frequented by
people addicted to heroin, cocaine, alcohol and other drugs.

But this city's skid row, only a few blocks from trendy Gastown and
Chinatown, is without compare anywhere else in the country.

Figures vary but authorities have estimated that there are about
9,000 junkies in the 30 square blocks of the downtown eastside on any
given day.

Many live in the area and those who don't go there for cheap,
accessible drugs.

The drug use and the availability of needles has also resulted in
Vancouver becoming notorious among HIV experts. One medical report a
few years ago said the area had the highest rate of HIV infection in
the developed world.

And a recent study by the B.C. Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS said
the average life expectancy in the downtown eastside will drop to
Third World levels in the next six years if HIV-infected residents
don't get better access to AIDS drugs.

The spread of HIV among injection drug users in the area will kill 500
people in that period, said researchers at the centre.

Lisa MacDonald, one of the scheduled speakers, spends some of her time
talking to groups as spokeswoman for Grief to Action, which was formed
after her younger brother died of an accidental overdose.

"I ask those in power, what kind of wakeup call do you need? When the
numbers in Vancouver become the horror story of the world?"