MAYOR PLANS TRIP TO EUROPE

Sullivan And Entourage To Study Drug Programs To Create Support For Insite

VANCOUVER - Mayor Sam Sullivan announced Tuesday he plans to go to
Europe with a small group of business people, community
representatives, and officials from other governments to study drug
programs and how they've reduced crime and public disorder.

Sullivan said the trip, which will possibly include visits to
Amsterdam, Finland, Switzerland and Germany, will create "political
momentum" to get support from the provincial and federal governments
for Vancouver's supervised-injection site and future drug-maintenance programs.

"The problem we have here in this city is not a technical one. The
problem is a political one. We need buy-in from the citizens," said Sullivan.

As well, he said, "we'll see if we can learn something from what they
have done."

Sullivan didn't have details on what cities he would visit or who
might be in the delegation, saying a subcommittee of the city's Four
Pillars Coalition will make recommendations on that.

But he said it's likely it will recommend representatives from the
federal and provincial governments be invited.

Federal Health Minister Tony Clement recently visited Sweden to look
at its drug programs. Sweden is renowned for being the European
country most aligned with the United States in its attitudes towards
drug addiction.

It has always led the way in Europe against "harm reduction"
approaches, used in countries like Holland, Germany, Switzerland and
Spain, which have needle-exchange programs, supervised-injection
sites, and drug-maintenance programs that provide addicts with
cocaine substitutes or heroin as a way of trying to improve their
health and stabilize their often chaotic lives.

The city has paid for at least four visits by staff or councillors in
the past six years to look at Europe's addiction programs, as well as
funding conferences in Vancouver that have included experts from Europe.

Sullivan's announcement came in the middle of a half-day conference
of the Four Pillars Coalition, a group of community and business
representatives who are occasionally called together to provide
feedback on what the city should do about drug addiction and crime.

Councillors from the city's main opposition party, Vision Vancouver,
said they're perplexed by the mayor's plans.

Coun. Tim Stevenson said he hadn't heard anything about the mayor's
plans for a European visit, even though Stevenson is his party's
liaison for drug issues.

He's concerned about the cost and necessity of the trip, but doesn't
want to be too critical at this point because he doesn't know
anything more about it than the mayor's announcement.

He and Vision Coun. Heather Deal were critical overall, however, of
the half-day meeting, saying Sullivan had failed to present any new
initiatives.

"We heard an excellent summary of what we already know. I didn't hear
any leadership about where we're going," said Deal.