MORE INSITES NOT ON AGENDA

Mayor Sam Sullivan says he considers Vancouver's supervised injection
site "an absolutely vital part" of his overall drug strategy. However,
he won't commit to pushing for more sites beyond the current one on
East Hastings Street.

"Well, my main focus right now is keeping the one we've got open,"
Sullivan told the Georgia Straight in a phone interview. "I know that
Mayor [Alan] Lowe in the City of Victoria is trying to get a
safe-injection site open in Victoria, without success. I think the
objective, first things first, would be to maintain the existing one."

Sullivan praised the four-year-old Insite, the first supervised
drug-injection site in North America. "I consider Insite an absolutely
vital part of the CAST [Chronic Addiction Substitution Treatment]
initiative," he said. "Insite will be a very important recruiting site
to get people into substitution treatment."

Federal Conservative Health Minister Tony Clement did not approve a
renewal of a three-year Health Canada exemption for supervised
injection of drugs at Insite last year. Instead, he put off any
decision about the site until December 31. Sullivan has not promoted a
second injection site in the interim, despite the fact that
harm-reduction advocates have been calling for another one for years.

Ann Livingston, executive program director with the Vancouver Area
Network of Drug Users, told the Straight she still supports opening
more sites.

"You constantly hear that we should just fight for the one we've got,"
she said. "Why? The chances are slim for a second site right now, but
they are slim because the government won't open one. The fact is there
is a ton of drug use continuing, but they [governments] are not the
ones up to their elbows in shit-infested alleys."

Portland Hotel Society executive director Mark Townsend's staff
operate the site in partnership with Vancouver Coastal Health. Last
September, Townsend told the Straight: "In the Downtown Eastside,
you'd probably need three [sites]." In a June 12 phone interview,
Townsend said he is "disappointed" that the second site has fallen
off the radar.

"It is disappointing that the concept of a second site is not being
debated," he said. "It's also disappointing that the concept of detox
on demand and prevention and all those things are not getting debated
either. It's not just the one thing, you know? It's disappointing that
we can't have a comprehensive national strategy."

Sullivan said he favours substituting prescribed pills for illegal
drugs for addicts. But he denied recent media reports that he is
willing to sacrifice the future of Insite, located on East Hastings
Street, to get his ideas off the ground. Sullivan denied Vancouver
Courier columnist Allen Garr's recent comments that "it looks like
Sullivan is willing to sacrifice it [Insite], in spite of its success
and broad public support".

"In fact, I believe I had a very important role with all of the other
people who worked hard to get the extension for the site," Sullivan
said. "I met in Ottawa with numerous people, including the prime
minister and the ministers, to appeal to having an extension, and I
intend to continue making the case in Ottawa."

A comprehensive national strategy is part of Sullivan's wish list,
following his announcement on June 6 that he will reconvene the City
of Vancouver's Four Pillars Coalition for a strategic planning session
next month. According to the mayor's office, there will also be a
progress report on Project Civil City and the Four Pillars Strategy
initiated by former mayor Philip Owen. (The four "pillars" are
prevention, treatment, harm reduction, and enforcement.)

"We will be doing some strategic planning to secure the additional
three-and-a-half years that the Vancouver Coastal Health Authority is
seeking [for Insite]," Sullivan said.

Last November, when he unveiled Project Civil City, Sullivan stated
that one of his recommendations was to reconfigure the Four Pillars
Coalition "to ensure that public disorder becomes a main area of focus
over the next 24 months".