NO ROOM FOR NIMBYISM IN WAR AGAINST DRUGS

Anyone with a nose for history will know
Vancouver has had a century-old love affair with the illegal drug trade.

And given our spaced-out justice system and the
see-no-evil attitude of most city politicians,
it's hard to see it ending any time soon.

But that doesn't mean we shouldn=92t try to help
those determined to rid themselves of their
addictions. In fact, it's our moral duty to do so.

It's also in our self-interest as taxpayers. The
more addicts we get clean, the less we have to pay for the misery they
cause.

However, we need to go about this realistically.
Safe-injection sites, touted with missionary zeal
by government-funded medical researchers and
pro-drug pressure groups, are at best a band-aid.

The public understands this. At least that's
judging by a new Angus Reid survey showing
British Columbians (especially women) are more
likely to support government funding for
abstinence-based treatment programs than for
=93harm reduction=94 policies such as supervised
injection sites. The margin is 46 per cent to 33 per cent.

Now, you might not be surprised by these results,
given that the random survey of 800 adults was
done for the Drug Prevention Network of Canada,
which promotes abstinence-based, drug and alcohol recovery programs.

I think, though, it's just common sense. I mean,
do we really want to keep people on drugs . . . or get them off them?

Getting them to kick their habit, of course, is
harder. There's no quick fix; it can take several kicks at the cat.

And, yes, recovery centres are needed to help
addicts on the road to, well, recovery =AD
preferably outside the Downtown Eastside, where
it's all too easy to start using again.

The problem is that, whenever there's a proposal
to put a recovery centre in the 'burbs, residents
there invariably want to kibosh it. Look no
further than the recent petition against a
Richmond recovery centre for female addicts,
slated to start up this September on No. 2 Road.
David Berner, the Drug Prevention Network's
executive-director, said the non-profit Turning
Point Recovery Society that will be running the
10-bed centre has been quietly turning out clean,
sober citizens for nearly 30 years.

But Richmond residents like Ernie Mendoza are
skeptical. =93The grim reality is that no social
program here in Richmond and anywhere in the
world has resulted in successfully minimizing or
eliminating the tragic consequences and miseries
of substance abuse,=94 he wrote to the Richmond Review.

Indeed, you can understand why other ratepayers,
worried about crime and property values, might
react unfavourably, at least initially.

However, Berner, who started up a Vancouver
centre for addicts in 1967, told me Thursday he'd
be happy to have a recovery home next door to him
in tony West Point Grey: =93They're quiet and
they're the only house on the street that=92s guaranteed to be sober.=94

The bottom line is this: If we're serious about
combating the scourge of drug addiction, we all have to do our bit.

Myself, I'd far prefer my tax money was spent on
recovery centres than safe-injection sites. But
then I don't think there=92s anything safe about
injecting illegal drugs in the first place.