B.C. IN DARK AGES TACKLING DRUG CRISIS

Canada and the U.S. are in the Dark Ages in dealing with the drug problem,
says Diane Riley, deputy director of the International Harm Reduction
Association.

And when it comes to drug addiction and overdose deaths, AIDS, hepatitis C
and drug-induced poverty, unemployment and social disorder, Riley says it
doesn't get much worse than B.C.

Riley, a professor of medicine at the University of Toronto, will be one of
the main speakers at a conference on health, addictions and social justice
at St. Paul's Hospital in Vancouver today through Saturday.

B.C. has the worst reported human-immunodeficiency-virus and hepatitis C
rate among injection-drug users in the Western world, according to the B.C.
Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS, sponsor of the conference.

By not doing enough to prevent and treat drug addiction, Canada is in for a
rough and costly time, Riley warned in an interview from her Toronto home.

She said harm-reduction practices are proved to be cost-effective, yet
Canada is "light-years" behind most other countries, except the U.S., which
is worst.

Countries using a harm-reduction approach longest have populations going
from hard-drug use to soft-drug use and an increase in the age of first drug
use, Riley said. In Canda "we're creating this permanent underclass. And
HIV, hep C, crime violence and drugs wars are going to become much worse."

To prevent youth from using drugs, Riley said children need honest
information on the specific effects of each drug. Just saying "don't do it"
doesn't work.

And politicians need to "break apart the drug markets" by allowing coffee
shops to sell marijuana but not alcohol or other drugs.

Drugs are not such a big problem in Europe now, Riley said, because more
countries are "going Dutch." In the Netherlands, there is an increased use
of marijuana but a decrease in heroine and cocaine use, AIDS and
drug-overdose deaths.

In Europe, she said, users of hard drugs such as heroin and cocaine are
treated like any other citizen with a medical problem.

Riley said Canada needs to "come down hard on traffickers but lighten up on
users." B.C. needs drop-in centres so addicts can get medical help, a bed,
same-day methadone treatment and safe injection rooms, she said.