MDs see drug decriminalization as threat to city: Experts point to a
Swiss experiment that saw violence and crime rise dramatically.

By: Pamela Fayerman, Sun Health Issues Reporter

Decriminalizing intravenous drugs to stem HIV infection is an absurd
idea that could turn Vancouver into one of the world's cocaine and
heroin capitals, according to doctors specializing in addiction
medicine.

The proposal to allow addicts to possess such drugs without risking
criminal arrest was made recently by the National Task Force on HIV,
AIDS and Injection Drug Use.

But doctors are outraged by the recommendation, which has now been
forwarded to the office of federal Health Minister Allan Rock.

``It's so absurd, it just makes my head spin,'' said Dr. Stanley de
Vlaming, who is head of addiction medicine at St. Paul's Hospital and
also a clinical instructor at the University of B.C. faculty of
medicine.

Dr. Ray Baker, a UBC assistant professor and medical director of
Health Quest, an addiction treatment clinic in Vancouver and Surrey,
agrees with de Vlaming.

``The proposal is fraught with danger because the repercussions could
far outweigh the risks and contradicts everything I know about the
science of pharmacology and addiction.''

And an official in Rock's office said the federal government has no
plans to decriminalize illegal drugs.

Communications officer Jennifer Lang said she didn't know if the
health department is considering the task force's recommendations, but
said even if it was, the government isn't planning to decriminalize
such drugs in the short term.

De Vlaming and Baker said they approve of many of the task force's
other recommendations, such as expanding methadone treatment programs,
as an alternative to heroin, and allowing drugstores to sell needles.
But they said decriminalizing heroin and cocaine for addicts flies in
the face of experiences elsewhere in the world.

``Do we really want to turn the downtown area into needle park?'' de
Vlaming said, referring to the notorious experiment in Switzerland
that allowed addicts to buy and use drugs freely.

The experiment resulted in the number of addicts permitted to deal
drugs openly in a designated park, in addition to getting free
needles, condoms and counselling, increasing to 20,000 from the
original few hundred over a fiveyear period.

A Columbia University study noted that 25 per cent of those who used
the park were from outside Switzerland, and drugrelated violence,
crime and deaths rose drastically. The park was closed a few years
ago, but only after the heroinrelated death rate in Switzerland
became the highest in Europe and North America.

In Vancouver, more than 1,000 people have died of drug overdoses in
the past four years, the majority of them in the Downtown Eastside.

It's estimated that 25 per cent of addicts here have HIV, which leads
to AIDS the highest rate of new HIV infections in North America.

De Vlaming, who prescribes methadone and antiviral medication to about
100 HIVpositive patients at his dropin Gastown clinic, said what
cocaine and heroin addicts need are more detox and recovery centres,
therapy for emotional and psychological illnesses incurred through
neglect, abuse and depression, and proper food and housing.

He also suggested expanding the needle exchange program in the
Downtown Eastside and methadone maintenance programs, ``which have a
proven track record for attracting and retaining people into
treatment.''

Baker said while doctors such as himself take a zero tolerance
approach to addiction treatment, ``such abstinencebased treatment is
currently not politically correct.''

Dr. John Blatherwick, medical health officer for the Vancouver/
Richmond Health Board, said while the power to decriminalize drugs for
addicts rests with the federal government, he agrees with doctors who
feel such a move is premature.

``Until we've tried everything else, I would not like to see us
handing out free cocaine and heroin,'' he said.

The health board is now plotting a harmreduction strategy that will
be unveiled in the fall and will make use of a $3million fund from
the provincial government.

Addiction treatment centres, improved housing and food for addicts,
plus an expanded methadone program are some of the things being
considered by the board, Blatherwick said.

De Vlaming said he knows many people wonder why society should spend
so much money, time and energy trying to help selfdestructive
addicts.

``One of the answers is that the stakes are high for every British
Columbian because of the spread of HIV. Our sons, daughters, brothers
and sisters may inadvertently have a relationship and contract the
infection from addicts.

``The other reason is that I see the most dysfunctional people from
backgrounds of such poverty, so helpless and hopeless, that they
haven't had much of a realistic alternative in choosing to not do
drugs.''