B.C. IS IN DARK AGES: DRUG-TREATMENT PROS

B.C. is in the Dark Ages in the way it deals with drug-abuse problems, say
two of Europe's leading experts.

"You are still in denial," said Dr. Giel Van Brussel, who is head of the
department of municipal health in Amsterdam. "You don't seem to realize yet
that these people are not just going to go away."

Van Brussel and Dr. Christoph Buerki, who runs the heroin prescription
clinic and a walk-in treatment centre with an injection room in Bern,
Switzerland, were in Vancouver on their way to a international conference
on drug-overdose prevention, which began yesterday in Seattle.

Van Brussel said his first impression of Vancouver as he wandered out of
his hotel was: "What a rich, beautiful city."

And then he wandered down on to Hastings Street and was besieged by pot,
cocaine and heroin dealers.

"This is what Amsterdam was like in 1985," said Van Brussel.

He said the Netherlands' addiction rate has steadily declined from 10,000
to 5,000 addicts since the country adipted a more co-ordinated approach to
treatment 15 years ago.

He said the fact that Vancouver's needle exchange gives out three million
syringes a year means the city has a major drug-abuse problem. That the
average age of drug addicts here is between 30 and 35 years indicates they
are long-term, chronic addicts.

"Peoiple teand to get addicted to drugs around 18 to 20 years of age -
these people have been addicted to drugs for 10 to 15 years," Van Brussel
said of many of the Vancouver area's 10,000 drug addicts.

And he said we are still treating our drug problem with Band-Aid
approaches, such as free condoms and leaflets, as though the adicts were
were likely suddenly to choose to change their lives.

He said Vancouver needs a comprehensive program to deal with these people,
starting with housing.

And he said the treatment process would more than pay for itself out of
what it saves in other social costs, such as reduced crime. He pointed out
that studies in Amsterdam showed comprehensive treatment saved society $40
a day per person.

He said it will take political will to begin to deal with the problem.