SAFE SITE FOR ADDICTS 'SAVED LIVES'

A member of the Vancouver/Richmond health board panel that proposed
safe-injection sites for drug addicts says an unauthorized site she
used to oversee provided a place to escape the "death camp" that is
the Downtown Eastside.

Ann Livingstone was one of five committee members who prepared the
proposal, debated for the first time at a health board meeting
Thursday night, for four safe-injections sites. She said The Back
Alley, at 356 Powell Street, was used by between 80 to 200 addicts
three to four times a night.

"It helped them save each other's lives and strengthen a sense of
community," she said.

The health board advanced the issue only slightly Thursday night,
voting to further study the concept and to begin discussions with the
federal and provincial governments, whose approval is necessary for
the sites to go ahead. But for board member Bud Osborn, it was a
positive step.

"This shows addicts that someone cares," he said. "And if someone
cares about you, you start to care about yourself." Osborn, a former
addict himself, says there are other things that can be done in the
meantime to stop the death toll from rising like installing public
telephones and establishing a safe place for people to escape the drug
scene.

Livingstone, who works for the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users,
said she doesn't believe either level of government will approve the
proposal.

She said the safe site she used to run, with a phone, TV, heat and
needles, may have been in a substandard building, but she said it
helped save lives.

After about a year of operation, it was shut down by police, who say
it had the impact of "a grenade" on the safety and security of the
neighbourhood.

Staff Sergeant Douglas MacKay-Dunn, who works at the neighbourhood
safety office on Hastings, is shocked this matter is being revisited.
He says safe-fixing sites are "a quick fix" that attract addicts and
dealers from other parts of the province and other parts of the country.

He said The Back Alley was shut down because people inside were
dealing drugs. "They were around there like bees around honey," he
said. "If you want to create a huge magnet to destroy a neighbourhood
and community and further marginalize this community, you'll throw in
safe-fixing sites."

The difference between The Back Alley and the proposal currently being
debated by the health board is the new site would be a health facility
with nurses and medication, said Livingstone.

If approved, the pilot project would include four safe-fixing sites: a
free-standing site near the old Woodward's store; two sites "within"
the Portland/Sunrise/Washington hotel group; and a fourth site near the
Astoria
Hotel.

The proposal describes a uniquely West Coast amalgam of half coffee
bar, half social service outlet. While the front coffee shop would
offer coffee and snacks at "a nominal price," a space behind the
coffee shop would provide private cubicles equipped with apparatus for
injecting, mirrors, lockers for clients' belongings and washrooms with
sinks.

The report containing the proposal was commissioned by the board in
July.

Checked-by: Rich O'Grady