Voice from B.C.

THE LAW MUST CHANGE

Vancouver AIDS epidemic is not simply a regional problem

When I was a novice politician struggling with my duties as minister of
consumer services in the days when consumerism was fashionable (it will
be again, trust me) I learned a great Canadian truth. If something is not
a problem in Toronto, it's not a problem elsewhere. If it becomes a problem
in Toronto, it's suddenly a major national concern.

In those days, the newest consumer scourge in Vancouver was the tax
discounter. He would prey upon those who needed their income tax rebates
badly, and, in exchange for a bit of cash up front, take an assignment of
the rebate owed. It was a scabby little scam and at my first consumer
ministers' meeting in Toronto in early 1976 I proposed steps be taken to
curb this pernicious practice. I drew curious looks from my colleagues and
the odd patronizing murmur but no action for no better reason than the
practice was unknown in Ontario.

The next year the tax rebater was in Toronto, plying his vicious trade,
untouchable by the law. All hell broke loose. Doing something about tax
rebaters was item No. 1 on the agenda of the next ministers' meeting.

Today Vancouver, which last time I looked was a large city in Canada, has a
problem that hasn't yet hit other Canadian cities to the same degree an
AIDS epidemic. Yes, an epidemic in medical terms.

For as long as I can remember, which is to say for a long time, Vancouver
has had the dubious distinction of being the heroin capital of Canada, if
not North America. This is the port through which the stuff enters Canada
from Asia. Despite this long history of hard drug abuse, the problem has
worsened as the years go by.

AIDS came upon the scene about 1980 and is transmitted by addicts sharing
dirty needles. Hence it's a big problem in Vancouver's downtown east side.

Until a few years ago, the problem was controllable. Law enforcement
officials turned a blind eye as the City of Vancouver made clean needles
available to addicts through a needle exchange program. Education programs
seemed to be working and one could look at the downtown east side and say
that while the problem was there, it was manageable. Then it happened.

According to Dr. John Blatherwick, the longserving and highly respected
medical health officer for VancouverRichmond, the big change came when
cocaine became readily available and cheaper. It replaced heroin as the
drug of choice and, like heroin, had the most desired effect when injected
directly into the veins.

The problem is that coke, while a much greater high, must be ingested much
more often than heroin. Where a heroin addict might inject three or four
times a day, a cocaine user tends to binge and will inject perhaps 25 or 30
times a day. This means the possibility of dirty needles being used to
transmit AIDS is many times greater. And what had been a serious problem
has become a fullblown epidemic.

The cost to the community is enormous. There are about 3,000 HIV positive
victims in Vancouver and each one will cost in the neighborhood of $150,000
to maintain for his or her lifetime. This doesn't begin to compute the
extra crime associated with maintaining habits nor the social destruction,
often directly involving astonishingly young street kids.

What do we do and why do I raise this as an example of how Ottawa must
start seeing and dealing with problems that are not right under its nose?

Well, Vancouver deputy police chief Ken Higgins has been quoted as saying,
"if we wiped the chalkboard clean and said how would we deal with the
situation now, the last thing we would come up with is the present
system.'' Translated law enforcement is not the answer. We must have safe
houses where addicts can be given clean needles and allowed to shoot up.
They're doing it in the streets now in broad daylight, so why not?

This takes de facto, if not actual, decriminalization of drug use. The
trafficking side is a law enforcement matter the rest is a health issue.
It's a health issue that involves crime, not the other way around.
Moreover, we're talking about an epidemic that has already broken out of
the boundaries of Vancouver's inner city into the community at large.

The law or at least the enforcement of the law must change and change
soon.

And that's Ottawa's department.

Rafe Mair is a Vancouver broadcaster with radio station CKNW.