WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON THE SUBSTITUTION OF LEGAL DRUGS FOR ILLEGAL DRUGS?

Tom Stamatakis

President, Vancouver Police Union

"I'm not aware of any legal drug that can replace someone's addiction
to crack cocaine or crystal meth. And in this city, I would suggest
that the vast majority of issues that are related to drug use that we
struggle with, whether its public disorder or property crime, are
related to the consumption of those two drugs. So I just don't see how
it is going to be effective at all."

Ann Livingston

Executive program director, Vancouver Area Network of Drug
Users

"You can put injection sites in place, but they don't address illegal
drug markets. The hope of substitution therapy is that it can finally
impact crime, car breakups, biker gangs, whatever. It's so exciting to
move away from this endless debate about this stupid little study
downtown that Insite is. It's just delaying us moving forward with
stuff that's really going to make a difference."

George Chow

Vision Vancouver councillor

"I think you're still not resolving the problem Now we are dealing
with a great many more drugs than with the NAOMI project, which was
just using the opium substitutes. Now you are talking about heroin,
cocaine, and crystal meth [use], so whether the substitution programs
work or not remains to be seen. It's really just an
experiment."

Sam Sullivan

Vancouver mayor (in an October 2 NPA news release)

"Delivering compassionate solutions to our social challenges is one of
the five goals we have established for our government I support
substitution treatment for those suffering from addiction because it
rejects the use of needles and illegal drugs and offers real hope of
reducing homelessness, crime, and public disorder. It can be a pathway
to long-term abstinence."