VANCOUVER'S BIG RISK COULD BENEFIT US

When it comes to our relationship with the big city to the west, we in the
suburbs like to keep our distance. Oh, we like Vancouver's parks and
cultural opportunities and it's great fun to take the visiting relatives to
Granville Island and for gelato in the West End, but we don't see
Vancouver's problems as our problems.

And that brings us to safe injection sites. Vancouver, Health Canada and the
provincial health ministry have, quite courageously, opened the first clinic
in North America where addicts can inject their drugs with clean needles in
a supervised setting. It is a health issue, proponents say, and will save
lives. Addiction, they say, can't be addressed as a criminal problem. We've
tried that and it doesn't work.

The safe injection site won't supply addicts with drugs, but it will make
counselling available and provide resources for addicts wanting help with
their addiction and other health concerns. Safe injections sites have worked
in Europe and this is, in essence, a pilot project to see if they work here.

So far this year, 37 people have died of drug overdoses. In the last five
years, that number is 309, with 524 drug users dead from AIDS.

Those people weren't born and raised on the Downtown Eastside. They come
from all over the province, and like it or not, many are products of the
suburbs. Don't believe it? Talk to a social worker or a police officer in
Whalley.

The Vancouver experiment could pay dividends for Surrey. If some of this
city's addicts head downtown to take advantage of the new facility, they
will effectively be off Surrey's books.

And who knows? Some day Surrey might want to set up something similar. If
that day ever comes, the knowledge and experience gained in Vancouver could
come in handy to help us avoid the risks that lie ahead.