CRACKDOWN IN CRACKTOWN

Vancouver Cops Want To End Outdoor Drug Use

A Vancouver Police plan to stop public heroin use is just pushing the
Downtown Eastside problem out of sight, says a local drug-user advocacy group.

Ann Livingston, president of the Vancouver Area Network of Drug
Users, said the Vancouver Police Department's zero-tolerance policy
towards people shooting intravenous drugs on the street will only
force users to go somewhere else.

"I'd like to see more safe [injection] sites but I'd also like to see
the public health officials step forward and say that the police are
not setting public health policy," Livingston said.

But VPD Insp. Bob Rolls wants to expand the crackdown.

"Citizens are in support of this initiative," Rolls said. "They're
tired of people injecting in parks and school grounds and doorways,
so we're going to see how this goes."

The VPD crackdown came in response to the drug use that is still
happening on the street two years after the opening of Insite,
Vancouver's safe injection site that was set-up in 2003.

More than 18,000 needles are found around the safe injection site
every month, which constitutes a public health risk, according to the police.

"I hear some people that are saying that we're indiscriminately out
there charging everybody and that's just simply not the case," Rolls said.

Insp. Rolls also said there has been no notable increases in people
going to Insite since the police cracking down on drug users.

The Canadian Medical Association Journal published a study this year,
which found that Insite has reduced the number of drug users
injecting in public. This was considered an improvement for residents
and business owners in Vancouver's eastside.

"We're glad that Insite is cutting down public shooting and making
the area cleaner, but the most important thing for Vancouver Coastal
Health is the health outcome of the clients," Vivianna Zanocco, a
spokesperson for VCH, said.

The safe injection site, which is part of a government-endorsed
three-year pilot project, is the first of its kind in North America.