DRUG SOLUTIONS MUST START ON THE STREET

Bobbie Chase has seen both sides of the street. "I'm pretty much known as
exeverything," she said. Chase is an exjunkie, an exintravenous drug
user who at 14 was shooting speed. Now, at 40, she's back on the street,
not as a user but as someone extending a helping hand. The hand often holds
a syringe, not the kind that takes life but the kind that protects it.

Chase is an outreach worker for the Counterpoint needle exchange program.
Over the last four years, she's spent time working the street, talking to
addicts, answering questions, referring them to various programs. She also
hands out clean needles and collects used ones.

"I was lucky, I was never out on the street," she said. "I had a family
that supported me. I never shared needles. But I saw a lot of people that
did.

"I straightened out but a lot of friends didn't. Then about four years ago,
I thought it was time to give something back to the community."

For whatever reason, Londoners always seem surprised when they learn of the
drug culture that exists within the cozy, traditional confines of the city.
For years they've preferred not to be told of the seamier side of life. In
fact, several years ago when the needle exchange program was situated in
east London, there was a lot of pressure put on the administrators of the
program to move it.

Since then it's been expanded so that needle exchanges take place not only
on the street but at the AIDS Committee of London, the STD clinic, the
MiddlesexLondon Health Unit and the Youth Action Centre.

AN UNQUALIFIED SUCCESS

The program has been an unqualified success. In 199596, 5,164 needles were
distributed and 6,267 were returned. In 199697, 29,471 needles were
distributed with 28,440 returned. There were 773 contacts made.

"I'm quite encouraged by the numbers," said Graham Pollett, medical officer
of health for the health unit.

"We are making contact within the intravenous drug user population. Two or
three people are collecting and distributing syringes within the drug
community."

Pollett credits a lot of the success to people like Chase. "It's important
to have someone with credibility," he said. "She knows what goes on on the
street."

The street is where the problem and the solution are found, not in an
office or from the comfort of a home in suburbia where it's easy to
criticize a program that is seen as coddling drug users.

"I hope to God no one has to face this in their family. Users come from all
different classes, not just the street," says Chase. "You see a lot of
physical brutality. You go into a home and there's nothing, no food, the
furniture has been sold. My family saw a program about the street and said,
'This is what you do?' Somebody has to help. Sometimes it's disheartening
because you have to deal with the same clients year after year. But when
you help just one person get clean, that makes it worth it.

"There is a success rate." That makes the effort worth it.

"This is part of harm reduction strategy," says Pollett. "We recognize they
will continue to use drugs until they are ready to give them up. But what's
important is we are there to tell them that we have the support services
when they are ready to quit." It's that kind of thinking that makes this
program work where it should, on the street.