SEEDY UNDERBELLY

Lift enough rocks, and sooner or later something unpleasant will crawl into
the daylight for all to see.

So it is with the East Village, as the city prepares to expose the city's
seedy underbelly to the spotlight of redevelopment -- and the scorching
glare of public opinion.

At stake is an issue bound to divide the city: Drug addiction.

Calgary, despite having an estimated 3,000 opiate addicts and thousands
more who are hooked on everything from crack cocaine to crystal meth, is a
city that all but ignores addicts, leaving them to lurk in places like the
East Village.

The plan to turn this sleaziest of slums into a land of latte shops and
trendy condos leaves the city at a crossroads: Continue to ignore the
druggies until they slink into the shadows of another community, or deal
with them now.

City council has voted to tackle the social problems of the East Village
and the east inner city, and a study is underway to figure out how to do
just that.

But the best of intentions may go unfulfilled -- dealing with druggies may
prove too distasteful for Calgarians.

Helping opiate addicts likely means opening places where junkies can inject
safely -- places like the controversial shooting galleries of Vancouver.

Calgary has one methadone clinic quietly operating downtown, but that's for
recovering addicts -- there's next to nothing for those who live by the needle.

Let me say for the record, I wouldn't want a "supervised safe injection
site" anywhere near my neighbourhood.

And I have friends who are former heroin addicts -- kind, caring people
whom I trust, without reservation.

But they are former addicts, far removed from the desperate, honourless
world of drug use.

Drug addicts are people I'd prefer to see gone, far away from Calgary. I
don't think I'm alone in wishing for this fantasy solution.

But you can't issue the junkies 3,000 one-way bus tickets to the coast, and
a kick in the pants to boot -- it's unrealistic, and as Vancouver Mayor
Larry Campbell points out, Calgary's problem is Calgary's problem.

"You can't just pass it onto another city -- you have to deal with it,
because it's not going away," said Campbell.

"As we learned here, if you ignore it, it will get worse."

Campbell was instrumental in setting up Vancouver's four-pronged drug
strategy, of enforcement, prevention, treatment and harm reduction.

Harm reduction, if you haven't guessed, is giving addicts a clean,
supervised place to do their drugs, thus cutting down on overdose deaths
and disease.

The West Coast mayor said the decision to open safe injection sites took a
big mental leap, from viewing addicts as low-lifes, to people who are sick
and needing help.

"We have come to understand that this is a medical problem and we need to
treat these people," he said.

Denial doesn't work either, said Campbell, though he understands why
Calgarians want to pretend thousands of drug addicts aren't shooting up in
parks, back alleys and basements.

"You think it can't happen in a city with so much money, that's so
beautiful," he said.

"Well, it can happen, and if you ignore it, it spreads."

The issue is contentious enough that few on city council will go on record
with their opinions on what should be done about the addiction problem.

Behind the scenes though, the elected group who'll ultimately make the
decision are wrestling with the whole drug-use issue, which includes
whether to open shooting galleries.

Some say Calgary must acknowledge addiction, and open safe, supervised
areas where clean needles can go into veins -- a place where these sick
people can get high, and the risk of contracting blood diseases and dying
of an overdose is low.

But there are those on city council who feel the druggies don't need more
encouragement, and that added comforts like shooting galleries will only
add to their dependency, and attract new addicts to the city.

It's an issue with no easy answers, yet it's a decision Calgary city
council will soon have to make.

It's what happens when you go looking under rocks.