GUTSY DRUG CZAR CHALLENGES NO-GUTS POLITICIANS

For years, Donald MacPherson worked at a community centre at the
epicentre of the drug scene in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside,
surrounded by the grinding misery of addiction.

"We would deal every day with people overdosing in our washrooms and
we'd have to revive them," he recalls. "I became totally engaged with
watching our lack of response to what was a public health disaster."

Those were the days when injection drug addicts were regularly dying
of overdoses. MacPherson decided he wanted to make a difference and
soon found himself wearing a formidable new hat as Vancouver's drug
policy coordinator.

He helped kickstart a revolution in drug reform, with Vancouver's
four-pillar approach to drug use: prevention, treatment, harm
reduction and enforcement.

Over the years, other Canadian cities, including Edmonton, have
instituted various projects based on the four-pillar model.

On Friday, MacPherson is to receive an award for his work at an
international drug policy reform conference in New Mexico.

"What Donald MacPherson did was unprecedented and extraordinary,"
says Ethan Nadelmann, executive director of the U.S. Drug Policy
Alliance which is bestowing the honour. "Serving under four mayors
.. he provided the leadership, continuity and vision to transform
Vancouver into a global leader of sensible drug policy reform."

Under MacPherson's watch, Vancouver opened North America's first
supervised injection site and expanded addiction services.
Needle-sharing has dropped, fewer addicts are shooting up in public
and more of them are going into detox. In short, harm reduction works.

Vancouver also embarked on a three-year clinical trial comparing the
effectiveness of prescribed heroin maintenance to methadone
treatment. The researchers found that illicit heroin use fell by almost 70%.

MacPherson, who just stepped down after 10 years as Vancouver's drug
czar, said he's surprised and honoured to receive the award.

"It's a signal that the world is watching Vancouver, not just for the
Olympics but for what we've been trying to do in terms of addressing
social issues."

(Dr. Martin Schechter, the heroin trial's principal investigator, is
also being honoured at the conference.)

MacPherson would like to see all drugs decriminalized and regulated.
"We have chosen as a society to continue to let the Hells Angels and
other types of organizations regulate some of the most powerful
substances we have, and some that are less powerful, like cannabis,"
he said earlier this week from Paris where he was vacationing.

"If you were to evaluate drug prohibition as any other project gets
evaluated, you'd be hard-pressed to see successes when drugs are so plentiful."

Portugal decriminalized all drugs for personal use (up to a 10-day
supply) in 2001, he notes. Drug growers and traffickers still face
criminal penalties but users are referred to special tribunals which
can impose fines and community service and encourage addicts to get treatment.

While the use of pot, a relatively benign drug, has increased in
Portugal, heroin use had dropped and there's been a dramatic decrease
in heroin-related deaths and drug-related HIV cases.

Canada desperately needs a national -- and rational -- discussion on
drug policy reform, says MacPherson.

"Let's get some of our smartest people together -- medical people,
pharmacologists and police -- and task them with designing a new
system," he says. "Why can't we do that?"

Because our federal politicians have no guts?