CRACKDOWN COMING ON INJECTION DRUG USE

On Monday, Vancouver police will begin arresting injection drug users
who shoot up in public near the city's supervised injection in the
Downtown Eastside.

In a reversal of a longstanding police practice not to arrest addicts
for possession, the department says it's taking action because some
addicts continue to inject drugs near Insite at 139 East Hastings.

"It's really frustrating to see that supervised injection site there
and drug users not using it," said Insp. Bob Rolls, police commander
for the Downtown Eastside. "Our goal here is to target the users who
are creating street disorder, who are in close distance to the
supervised injection site and who are refusing to use that facility."

Police will focus the arrests in the area that runs from Carrall
Street to Gore Street and from Pender Street to Cordova Street.
Charges will be forwarded to Crown counsel, which supports the police
plan, Rolls said.

"We're hoping we're going to get some support from the courts. That
may not happen the first time, but if we catch the same person
continuing to defiantly inject within proximity to the injection site,
then we're expecting that over time we might get something a little
more significant."

Rolls pointed out the department recognizes drug addiction is an
illness but added that "you can't ignore the fact that when you've got
somebody out there making it extremely difficult or extremely
unpleasant for other citizens in the community, that we should be
doing something about it."

Police began warning drug addicts of the action Nov. 18 and have
notified various Downtown Eastside agencies, including the injection
site and the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users.

The police action was prompted by complaints to police from residents
and businesses, said Rolls, who singled out a case involving a
volunteer at the Carnegie Community Centre at Main and Hastings.

"She wasn't able to get up the steps because a woman was stretched out
on her back trying to inject a needle into her neck, and when she said
something to the woman, the woman lashed out at her."

Various agencies that collect thousands of spent syringes per month in
the Downtown Eastside continue to pick up syringes in the back alley
of the injection site and surrounding streets, Rolls said.

Since the injection site opened in September 2003, police have
encouraged addicts to use Insite, but it's apparent that only some are
listening to police, he said.

"We're after the ones who are ignoring us. The real goal is to change
behaviour."

Mayor-elect Sam Sullivan, who has admitted to supplying money to drug
addicts for drugs, wasn't available for comment when the Courier
reached his media relations director yesterday afternoon.

Ann Livingston, executive program director of VANDU, said the police's
plan will not help those addicts who need treatment, not jail.
Livingston said the police's action will further marginalize people.

"For the most part, the people who are injecting in alleys are super
marginalized," said Livingston, adding that 15,000 injections a day
occur in the Downtown Eastside. "There's going to be a lot of them who
are homeless. It doesn't make sense."

The city should be instead working to get more injection sites. She
also noted some addicts will avoid the injection site because staff
there won't help them inject their drugs.

"If in their greatest wisdom they think the public will support
putting really sick addicted homeless people in jail...that's the
policy the police are going to implement."

At least two businesses in the Hastings corridor support the police's
plan. Manager Wilson Lee of Owl Drugs at Main and Hastings said it was
a good idea and will make the area safer for the public.

Under the police department's old practice where drugs and syringes
would be seized, the addict could easily buy more drugs and get more
syringes from a needle exchange.

"The other way is just wasting the police time, but I don't know if
there is enough room in the prisons for these people," Lee said. "But
maybe it might help for the time being."

Pharmacist Mayson Chow at Sam's Pharmacy across the street from Owl
Drugs said she hoped the police action would help bring more customers
to the pharmacy.

Chow noted police projects run a few years ago have helped reduce the
street disorder in the neighbourhood, but drug use is still evident.

"Maybe [the addicts] will stop using in broad daylight right in front
of the store."