'GIVE STRATEGY A CHANCE,' SAYS MAYOR

The Province editorial "One pillar makes a shaky start" fails to
acknowledge the progress the City of Vancouver, Vancouver Coastal
Health and other partners in the four pillars drug strategy are making
on all four pillars - harm reduction, treatment, prevention and
enforcement.

The supervised injection site is a major step forward, however, the
focus on harm reduction has distracted attention away from progress
made on the other pillars, including:

- - Creation of the Four Pillars Fund to support community-based
projects.

- - A prevention forum to be held in Vancouver next month.

- - Development of a prevention strategy to be released in
2004.

- - Implementation of core addiction services at every community health
centre in Vancouver.

- - And measures by the Vancouver Police Department to target drug
dealing, improve public safety and support the injection site in
Vancouver's Downtown Eastside.

For the first time in the history of the city's drug problem, the City
of Vancouver, health care providers, Vancouver police and the
provincial and federal governments are working together on the four
pillars -- a co-ordinated evidence-based approach to addiction that
has proven successful in 27 other cities around the world.

Let's give it a chance to work here in Vancouver.

Larry Campbell, mayor, City of Vancouver

and Ida Goodreau, president,

Vancouver Coastal Health