DRIVE ON TO INCLUDE ADDICTS IN NEIGHBOURHOOD

As Devon MacFarlane sees it, drug addicts and alcoholics have been living
around Commercial Drive as long as the community has been there.

So rather than pit residents against addicts, MacFarlane organized a
community forum for Thursday to bring both sides together to create a
harmonious neighbourhood.

"It's about trying to break down the 'us versus them' scenario so that
we're all in this together," said MacFarlane, a community worker with the
North Health Office of the Vancouver Coastal Health Authority at Commercial
Drive and East 1st Avenue. "Basically, we're looking at how do we make the
best neighbourhood possible."

MacFarlane, however, admits it won't be easy since residents and business
owners have clear views on drug and alcohol addiction and how it fuels
break-ins and street disorder.

Thursday's meeting, at 7 p.m. at the Aboriginal Friendship Centre at 1607
East Hastings, will develop a list of neighbourhood concerns to discuss in
workshops. From there, various actions could be taken such as lobbying
governments and organizations for shelter space for homeless adults and
youth. Currently, none exists along the Drive.

MacFarlane said provincial government cuts to housing and social programs
have created more visible homelessness on the Drive.

That fact coupled with the police's crackdown on drug dealers in the
Downtown Eastside last year-which arguably pushed more dealers and addicts
to the Drive-alarmed many residents.

MacFarlane created the Grandview-Woodland Drug and Alcohol Coalition last
fall. Members include community health workers, residents, addicts and a
representative of the local community policing centre.

Patricia LaNauze, project development coordinator for the Women's Addiction
Foundation, joined the coalition to work with the Drive neighbourhood to
build a recovery house for addicted women.

For three years, the foundation has been attempting to raise money for an
unspecified site in the Drive area, said LaNauze, noting there is only one
such centre in the city.

"We don't want to spring ourselves on the neighbourhood, we want the
neighbourhood to be part of the process," she said. "There's nothing in the
area [for women], and if you look at the cycle of addiction, there's a
fall-off after treatment. Those first days after treatment are really
critical because the chances of them using again is fairly high."

Complementing the coalition's effort to address addiction problems has been
Joji's Hair School, near the corner of Napier and Commercial. The school
recently launched Adopt-A-Block, in conjunction with the Grandview-Woodland
community policing centre, to clean up the Drive and make the streets and
alleys less attractive for drug dealers.

At least once a week, the 50 or so students take shovels, rakes, gloves and
tongs to pick up used needles, condoms and other garbage along the Drive.

The start of the hairdressing school's campaign began coincidentally as the
drug squad conducted an undercover project on the Drive, making 46 drug
buys that led to 56 charges. Police identified 27 dealers, including 11 who
had previous offences for drug dealing. The most popular drug being sold
was marijuana, followed by cocaine.

"Commercial Drive is a great place, but we're just trying to address some
of the problems and improve it," MacFarlane said. "The police are only one
part of it, but people turn to them as if they have it in their mandate to
do everything. They can only do such much."