AID FOR ADDICTS TOUTED

City, Province Must Put More Cash Into Prevention Efforts, MPP Told At
Vanier Rally

Ottawa's former chief medical officer of health says city council is
either naive or avoiding issues that are crippling the capital by
endorsing the concept of a youth drug treatment centre last week.

Dr. Robert Cushman made the remarks yesterday at a Vanier rally
calling for more provincial funding for addiction services outside MPP
Madeleine Meilleur's constituency office on Montreal Rd.

"The city was naive to think that one building with 48 beds is going
to reduce the problem," said Cushman, CEO of the Local Health
Integrated Network for the Ottawa region.

"We need the centre but we need to be doing a lot more than that. If
we don't, we won't get results."

Last week, city council approved building an $8-million, 48-bed youth
treatment centre, but only if the province is willing to pay for it.

PREVENTION PROPOSALS

Cushman accuses the city of "cherry picking" the centre from a long
list of recommendations that included proposals on prevention.

He advocates a greater emphasis on fighting addictions and improving
mental health services to help prevent children from ending up at the
proposed centre.

The city's detox centre needs more funding to handle more people for
longer stays, and a long-term adult treatment centre is also required,
he said.

That would permit addictions to be tackled early with a youth
anti-drug initiative similar to the city's anti-smoking youth group,
expose. Then police would need to crack down more on people using and
pushing drugs on the streets, while urging them to seek help, Cushman
said.

That seemed to satisfy the 30 or so demonstrators with placards and
two mattresses symbolizing beds needed for long-term addiction
treatment facilities.

"We have real problems here in Vanier," said Evan Soikie, president of
the Vanier activist group ACORN, which organized the rally. "I'm going
to do everything in my power to make Vanier a place I can be proud
of."

Other protesters said they see a wide variety of street crime,
including selling drugs, prostitution and property thefts.

Meilleur didn't avoid the boisterous crowd.

"I never run away," she told the Sun. "I agree we (the province) have
to do our part. We know there is more to do."

STAFF SHORTAGE

Meilleur said since she has been in office, the Ottawa Detoxification
Centre has received 300% more funding.

Even so, the centre had to close down on at least one occasion last
year because it didn't have enough staff.