MAYOR HEADS TO OZ FOR DRUG TALK

Mayor Larry Campbell will head Down Under next month to be a keynote
speaker at a conference on harm reduction for drug addicts.

Campbell, who will fly to Melbourne from Vancouver April 19, was asked
to address the 15th International Conference on the Reduction of Drug
Related Harm about a year ago, after meeting some association members.

"They were interested in the Vancouver experience," said Campbell, who
plans to talk about the process the city had to go through to open a
supervised injection site. "I'll talk about the transition from
recognizing we had a huge problem to the citizen involvement,
political involvement and how we went about solving the concerns of
the citizens."

Harm reduction, which seeks to mitigate hazards like overdoses and
transmission of Hepatitis C and HIV/AIDS through dirty needles, is one
of the four pillars of the city's drug policy, implemented in 2001-the
others are treatment, education and enforcement.

Aside from the supervised injection site on the 100-block of East
Hastings Street, the Vancouver Coastal Health Authority operates a
life skills centre for addicts and distributes three million free
needles a year.

The harm reduction push began under the reign of former mayor Philip
Owen, and was a factor in his split with the Non Partisan Association,
which controlled the city at the time.

Campbell will also tell the conference that Vancouver's supervised
injection site is recording more than 500 user visits a day, and staff
have intervened in at least 100 overdoses since the facility opened
six months ago.

"We want to show the differences that have taken place," Campbell
said. "We know there have been at least 100 interventions and while
the health authority may not be able to say that they are lives saved,
I think I am more than qualified as a former chief coroner to say
people are alive as a result of this."

Donald MacPherson, the city's drug policy coordinator, will also
attend the conference at a cost of $4,500. Campbell's costs for the
four-day conference will be covered by the association.

MacPherson has been to two previous harm reduction conferences, in
Switzerland and the U.S., and believes Australia is more progressive
than Canada when it comes to harm reduction.

Sydney, he said, has had a supervised injection site for three years,
and conducts trials where addicts are prescribed free heroin. "They've
had success limiting the spread of Hepatitis C and their needle
exchanges are more diverse and widespread than ours. They also have a
coherent national drug strategy, which we don't."

Campbell said the key belief Vancouver and Australia have in common
when it comes to drug issues is the philosophy that arresting drug
users does not solve the problem.

"We both recognize you can't arrest your way out of this and that's an
important point," said Campbell, who is curious to see Australia's
drug addiction treatment and education policies.

Campbell said he will not have time to travel from Melbourne to Sydney
to visit the supervised injection site, but the site's managers will
be at the conference.

"We'll compare notes to see what they are doing that is working that
we're not [doing] and vice versa," said Campbell, who's hoping to
catch a game of Australian Rules Football in Melbourne if he gets a
chance.

Vancouver Coastal Health Authority staffers Heather Hay, director of
Vancouver region, and Dr. David Marsh, physician leader of addiction
services, will also attend the conference.

Vancouver will host the 17th International Conference on the Reduction
of Drug Related Harm in 2006.

The conference is being held in Melbourne, Australia, between April 20
and 24.