MILLIONAIRE BACKS MAYOR'S DRUG PLAN

A local philanthropist and chairman of the largest independent
diagnostic laboratory in B.C. will donate $50,000 to support Mayor
Sam Sullivan's plan to create a drug maintenance program for female
sex trade workers.

Dr. Donald Rix of MDS Metro Laboratory Services, whose company
operates two Downtown Eastside methadone clinics, said he hoped his
contribution would help the mayor achieve his controversial plan.

"Properly done, it might help deal with the problem," said Rix, a
former general practitioner. "The problem is not going to go away,
you can't sweep it under the carpet. It will continue, it's going to
be there. So why not try a drug maintenance program and see how
successful it might be?"

Rix met with Sullivan this month to discuss the program. He agrees
with the mayor that a credible group with related expertise should
set up the program.

So far, a group hasn't been identified, nor has a budget. However,
with Rix's $50,000 and another $10,000 offered by Marco Romero,
president of Polaris Minerals Corporation, the mayor's plan is
gaining momentum.

Sullivan has told the Courier that another person, whom he wouldn't
name, is prepared to donate $500,000. If the program operates and is
successful, Rix said he would donate more money.

"It's easy to sit on your hands and do nothing," he said.

The mayor's plan involves prescribing drugs or substitutes to sex
trade workers to help reduce the need for women to sell their bodies
to get money for drugs. The program would kick in only after social
service agencies attempted to get a sex trade worker treatment,
counselling, housing or job training.

Shortly after getting his medical degree from the University of
Western Ontario in 1957, Rix was a general practitioner for five
years in Vancouver and did stints at the Salvation Army's East Side
drop-in clinic. Some of his patients included sex trade workers.

"I have a little knowledge of this area and I have seen all the
problems," he said.

Rix, professor emeritus of pathology at the University of B.C., has
an extensive medical background. He helped found MDS Metro Laboratory
Services and Cantest Laboratory Services in Vancouver.

He and his family have donated millions of dollars for health, the
arts and education in B.C., including $4 million last year to the
University of B.C. Half went to bursaries for medical students and
the other half for a variety of needs ranging from athletics to early
childhood development.

UBC commemorated Rix by naming a lecture theatre at the university's
Life Sciences Centre-home to the medical undergraduate program-the
Dr. Donald Rix Lecture Theatre. The Donald Rix Building on campus,
which gives small companies a place to grow, was named after Rix gave
UBC more than $1 million. A former rower, he also gave $250,000 last
year toward the building of the UBC John M.S. Lecky Boathouse for
rowers in Richmond.

Politically, Rix is backing longtime friend and fellow doctor
Vancouver-Centre Liberal MP Hedy Fry's bid for the Liberal leadership
run. He introduced Fry when she announced her bid last month in Stanley Park.

He gives money, he said, because he was brought up that way.

"When I was in general practice, I was the junior [physician] in the
practice, and the junior collected for the United Way. So I went up
and down the street and collected for the United Way. Some people
would give me money that maybe were having a hard time or just
starting up and other people who could easily afford to give me $100
or $200, wouldn't give me a cent. I could never understand those people."