CLOSING SAFE INJECTION SITE WILL PUT POLICE IN BIND,
SAYS FORMER COP

A former high ranking Vancouver police officer predicts illegal drug
injection sites will open if the federal Conservative government shuts
down the city's legal site.

Ken Frail said the illegal sites would then put the Vancouver Police
Department in a difficult situation because of its support for Insite
at 139 East Hastings.

"It'll put the department in conflict with the community because [the
illegal sites] will have to be shut down," Frail told the Courier.
"We've worked with the community and established contacts that could
be in jeopardy."

The Vancouver Police Department officially supports Insite. Police
Chief Jamie Graham wrote to Health Canada to request the site's
operating licence be extended.

The three-year scientific experiment, which began in September 2003
when the facility opened, expires Sept. 12. It operates under an
exemption from the country's drug laws.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper was in Vancouver Wednesday and Thursday
to make announcements on the 2010 Olympics and public safety.

At the Pan Pacific Hotel Wednesday, Harper told reporters that Health
Minister Tony Clement would make the decision on Insite's future.

The prime minister wouldn't reveal a date but said an announcement
will be made "very shortly." A spokesman for Clement's office told the
Courier last month it would be made prior to Sept. 12.

"I won't be announcing anything on that myself on this trip [to
B.C.]," Harper said.

Frail worked 12 years in the Downtown Eastside and saw first-hand how
the drug problem grew out of control. He was a sergeant in 1989 when
191 people overdosed and died. He's currently working on contract
through the Vancouver Agreement on police projects and housing in the
Downtown Eastside.

Frail attended a press conference Wednesday to support the injection
site. He also wrote a letter to the prime minister asking him to keep
the site open.

"Closure of the [injection site] will result in increased public drug
consumption, increased overdose deaths and increased harm to the
entire city," Frail wrote.

Before the injection site opened in September 2003, Frail pointed out
that the level of crack cocaine and injection drug use was
intolerable.

Police attempted to "manage" the situation and called for a redesign
of public space at Main and Hastings to break up the hordes of people
using and selling drugs on the corner, he said.

In his letter, Frail said that a combination of police enforcement,
the work of peer and user groups and street nurses and the addition of
the injection site have made the open drug market more manageable.

Frail included pointed criticism of the RCMP in his letter. On Monday,
the RCMP announced it opposed extending Insite's operating licence.

"While it may seem natural for the federal government to turn to our
federal police force, I would submit that police officers in Vancouver
have more front line experience with the critical issues that affect
this community where the supervised injection site has been
operating," Frail wrote.

On a previous trip to Vancouver, Harper said his government would
consult the RCMP before making a final decision on Insite.