NEEDLE COLLECTION HEADED DOWNTOWN

More than 30 plastic containers to collect spent syringes will be
installed downtown within the next two months to help keep the city
clean of the millions of syringes used by addicts every year.

The city and Vancouver Coastal Health Authority are working on a plan
to install the containers but refused to reveal the locations until a
formal press release is issued.

The only evidence of the "robust plan" is a three-sentence paragraph
listed in a March 23 report to council by drug policy coordinator
Donald MacPherson.

The plan identifies the "downtown core" for the syringe containers and
mentions a "social marketing campaign" to encourage drug users to
properly dispose of syringes.

Implementation of the plan is to proceed over the next two months,
MacPherson's report said.

When contacted by the Courier Monday, MacPherson said "30 to 40"
syringe containers will be installed in downtown but he didn't know
the locations.

The Downtown Eastside, which has several syringe exchange facilities,
already has containers in many of the alleys. The small yellow
containers are easily visible on power poles.

MacPherson referred further inquiries about the syringe recovery plan
to the health authority, which confirmed that more than 30 containers
will be installed by May.

Viviana Zanocco, a spokesperson for the health authority, wouldn't
reveal other details but said the plan will be in place before the
summer. When the weather gets warm, more drug users will leave hotel
rooms and shelters to inject themselves with drugs in the streets, she
added.

"We want people to realize it is a really serious public hazard and
public nuisance," she said.

Zanocco said up to three million syringes are exchanged in the city
every year. Most of those are recovered by users and various agencies,
she added.

Syringes are free to users at the exchanges.

The Courier attempted yesterday to contact Dave Jones and Charles
Gauthier of the Downtown Vancouver Business Improvement Association to
gauge whether businesses had concerns about the containers.

Jones, the association's crime prevention director, and Gauthier, the
association's executive director, were in a board meeting until well
after the Courier's deadline.

Over the last few years, police have focused several drug
investigations downtown and in the West End, where drugs appear to be
more prevalent. On Monday, police announced the arrest of five men and
seizure of a large quantity of drugs after police busted a
"dial-a-dope" operation. Police said the operation was run out of 969
Richards St. and 1221 Homer St.

Police seized eight kilograms of cocaine, three kilograms of
methamphetamine and various amounts of heroin, ecstasy, marijuana and
GHB.

The arrests come after Vancouver police launched projects in November
2005 and in February to crack down on drug users smoking and injecting
drugs in public.

The B.C. Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS has criticized the police
in the past for its crackdowns, saying the action scares addicts from
using needle exchanges.