CITY AIMS TO BAN HARM REDUCTION

While Chilliwack praises its 12-year-old needle dispensing and drug
counselling clinic, Abbotsford is getting ready to make good on a promise
to keep harm reduction facilities out of its city limits.

The council proposes to amend the city's zoning bylaw to block safe
injection sites, needle dispensing or free standing methadone clinics,
mobile drug treatment services and the production or distribution of
medical marijuana.

Two years ago council members said they were "unequivocally opposed" to
such services. Gemini Services, a methadone clinic on George Ferguson Way,
would be 'grandfathered' under the revised zoning.

The motion will likely come up for discussion at the May 16 public hearing
at city hall.

Mayor Mary Reeves explained the council's position by saying they'd rather
see taxes put into treatment and prevention.

"We need to ensure we're spending money in the right way to reduce demand,"
she said. Reeves doesn't buy the position that harm reduction programs fill
a need in the spectrum of services offered to addicts, or that they prevent
the spread of disease and encourage addicts to seek treatment.

"Harm reduction is a social services job creation program," said Reeves,
who added it's supported by provincial and federal politicians "who are so
desperate to be seen doing something they'll do anything."

She points to Vancouver's $4 million safe injection pilot project which she
says serves just 100 people as an example that bolsters the council's position.

With addicts self-reporting, there's no certainty needle users aren't
sharing needles, Reeves said, adding Vancouver overdoses have increased.

As for marijuana, Reeves said, "I'm opposed to medical marijuana. If in
fact it's a medicine, it should go under the same criteria as other drugs."

However, Rev. Doug Ireland, a director of Fraser Valley Connection Services
in Chilliwack, warns Abbotsford is "shooting itself in the foot" by
rejecting harm reduction services.

"As far as harm reduction, needle dispensing is about 10 per cent of the
clinic's work. The rest is education, prevention, counselling and services
to sex trade workers. I can't imagine anything more short-sighted" than
banning harm reduction, said Ireland.

FVCS operates with community support, with the mayor, councillors and RCMP
among its board of directors, he said.

"In many respects, it's a poster child of harm reduction," Ireland said.

Each year since it opened, the clinic has taken in more needles than it
gives out, and its presence results in "a profoundly safe community," said
Ireland.

"Every case of HIV you prevent saves the system at least a quarter of a
million dollars, and saves families untold expense in heartbreak and loss
of a family member infected with HIV," he said.

City of Chilliwack workers find up to 10 needles a year in city parks, he
said. In contrast, Abbotsford parks staff recently contacted FVCS to ask
how to dispose of more than 3,000 needles they had picked up, Ireland said.

"Ask yourself which is a safer community. It's a no brainer."