HARPER'S U.S. STYLE DRUG STANCE HARMS WOMEN

Although a lot of moms will get whisked off to the spa or out for
brunch on Sunday (May 14), Mother's Day isn't so festive for many
others--like illicit-drug users. Even without kids, women addicted to
substances like heroin and crack face multiple obstacles to treatment.
As a recent harm-reduction conference in Vancouver made clear, women
have specific needs when it comes to getting off drugs, needs that
still aren't being met. And things could get even worse in Canada,
speakers at the international gathering said, if Prime Minister
Stephen Harper ends up following the U.S. conservative agenda too closely.

"Harm-reduction initiatives must be linked to social-justice movements
that seek to change the conditions of women's lives," Susan Boyd said
at the 17th International Conference on the Reduction of Drug Related
Harm, which drew more than 1,200 delegates and took place April 30 to
May 4.

Boyd, a senior research fellow at the Centre for Addictions Research of
B.C., chaired a session called Half the World Are Women: Gender and Harm
Reduction. A former outreach worker in the Downtown Eastside who has
written extensively about women and drug use, Boyd described how the
inclusion of women in harm-reduction research is a new area of inquiry.

"What do women need in order to feel safe in these programs?" asked
Boyd, who's also an associate professor in UVic's Studies in Policy
and Practice program. "Are these=85programs effective for all women?
What cultural and economic barriers keep women from accessing
services? What do women say they need for themselves and their children?"

Harm reduction shifts the focus away from abstinence to safe practices
that minimize injury, sickness, death, and other consequences of drug
use. It sees addiction as a disease, not a crime. Besides education
and outreach, its strategies include safe-injection and
methadone-maintenance programs, which exist in Vancouver, and heroin
prescription, which the city is currently offering on a trial basis.

Speaking to the Georgia Straight by phone following the conference,
Boyd explained some of the factors that make seeking treatment so
complex for many women. With fewer social and economic resources than
men, some women turn to sex work to make a living and to support their
drug habit. That leads to a vicious cycle: to tolerate prostitution,
they use drugs as an escape. If those with kids have their children
taken away by social services, they similarly turn to drugs to cope.

Women are more prone to negative outcomes of drug use because of power
dynamics with men, Boyd noted. Often second to get a fix after their
male partners, whether they're smoking a crack pipe or using a needle
to inject heroin, women are more likely to get infections.

When they attempt to seek treatment--a move that's frequently
motivated by becoming pregnant or having a child--women might
encounter opposition from their male partners and face violence or
abuse as a result. Women with kids might not have anyone to look after
their children while they attend treatment. Then there are issues of
transportation, housing, legal aid, and job training--which so many
drug-using women lack.

Boyd pointed to the Fir Square Combined Care Unit at B.C.'s Women's
Hospital and Health Centre--which provides services to pregnant women
and new moms who want to stabilize or withdraw from drug use--as an
example of an exceptional program that follows the harm-reduction
model. But more is needed, like detox for pregnant women and
female-only supervised-injection sites and crack-inhalation rooms.

She pointed out that drug problems aren't restricted to the corner of
Main and Hastings streets.

"Women from Kitsilano aren't coming into the Downtown Eastside for
treatment. Programs have to be flexible.=85We need a diversity of
options to minimize harm."

Those options could be far fewer with the federal Conservatives'
get-tough-on-drugs stance. Stephen Harper has said the government will
impose mandatory minimum prison sentences for drug-related crimes. Its
position on harm reduction is vague: during the election, Harper said
that his government wouldn't fund drug use, but the Conservatives
haven't shut down Vancouver's safe-injection site yet.

"Almost every western and nonwestern country sees the U.S. drug policy
as a failure, and to have our prime minister advocate for mandatory
minimums and harsher sentences.=85I just find it amazing that he could
be proposing that," Boyd said. "You just need to look south of the
border. It hasn't made for a safer world. It hasn't lowered drug use.
It has only devastated communities."

Sue Simon, the director of the Sexual Health and Rights Project at New
York City's Open Society Institute, concurs. "It's inexcusable that
the [U.S.] federal government doesn't support harm reduction 25 years
into the AIDS crisis," Simon said at the conference. "Is it collective
amnesia or willful disregard for evidence-based medicine?"

She's especially concerned about the American "Prostitution Loyalty
Oath". As a condition for receiving U.S. global AIDS funding, all
foreign and American nongovernmental organizations must have a policy
that explicitly opposes prostitution and sex trafficking. "The pledge
infringes upon constitutional rights and restricts what organizations
can do or say," Simon stated. "Sex workers must be guaranteed the
human rights to which they are entitled.

"I would move to Canada in a heartbeat if I believed that the majority
of people in my country supported what [President] George Bush
advocates when it comes to sexual health and rights," she added.

But following her talk, Simon admitted that she too has concerns about
Harper's plans.

"As Americans, we look to Canada for a more progressive take on
things," she told the Straight. "But the recent directions are very
disconcerting. We hope there is not too much emulation of the policy
decisions of the U.S."