DRUG POLICY COORDINATOR HOPES URBAN MYTHS GO UP IN SMOKE

The Vancouver Police Department's proposed drug policy will give the
public a clear indication of how police handle drug use and dispel
myths about the department's role in the drug-plagued city, says the
VPD's drug policy coordinator.

Insp. Scott Thompson presented a draft of the policy to the Vancouver
Police Board Wednesday. As reported in the Courier June 16, Thompson
said the policy is likely the first of its kind for a Canadian police
force.

Thompson said after the meeting the list of urban myths about the
police department is long, including "the police don't do anything
about the injection site, they don't do policing, that anything goes
in Vancouver, the Amsterdam of North America and all those sorts of
things."

In his presentation, he cited the importance of having "one voice" on
drug policy, providing an enforcement guide for police and adopting a
position that other police departments can examine.

"The rest of Canada is looking at what happens here to determine what
direction they should take," Thompson said. "As the lead police agency
responding to these issues on a day-to-day basis, the VPD decided it
was necessary to develop a drug policy and a process to re-examine
that policy on an ongoing basis."

Thompson spearheaded the need for a policy in December 2005. Working
with a group of senior police officers, he distributed a draft of the
policy to patrol teams and drug squad members for review.

The city's drug policy coordinator, Donald MacPherson, and Vancouver
Coastal Health were also consulted. The police board delayed a
decision Wednesday on the policy until its three new members had a
chance to study it.

Although much of the policy is already in operation, the VPD
recommends that a person's behaviour "and/or the context of the
psychoactive substance abuse rather than the actual unlawful
possession of the substance" should be the primary factor in
determining whether to lay a charge.

Historically, police avoided pursuing charges related to possession of
a small quantity of drugs because of the city's philosophical shift in
the 1990s that drug addicts had a health problem, not a crime problem.
At the time, Crown counsel was reluctant to approve charges and
politicians lobbied for more harm reduction measures such as Insite,
the city's supervised injection site at 139 East Hastings.

Police, however, have recently made enforcement against public drug
use and possession a priority, particularly in the Downtown Eastside.
At the core of the enforcement is the need to keep public places such
as parks and school grounds free of drug use.

The proposed policy, which is expected to be posted on the police
board's website, supports the city's Four Pillars drug strategy. The
four pillars are enforcement, treatment, harm reduction and prevention.

Ann Livingston, project coordinator for the Vancouver Area Network of
Drug Users, said she still had to digest the draft policy but was
concerned the policy recommends studying mandatory treatment, as is
applied in the Netherlands.

"My understanding is that mandatory treatment doesn't work,"
Livingston said. "I'm eager to read the document more clearly and see
what [the VPD] is referencing when it comes to mandatory treatment."

Livingston said she was glad the VPD was pursuing a drug policy
because she and other agencies in the city will have a clear
understanding of police work. She added, however, that some of the
statements in the policy were vague and could be interpreted in
different ways.

"It's really important that the public understand that every police
officer can enforce the Criminal Code [of Canada] as they see fit,"
Livingston said.