SOLID CHANGES AT DRUG ORGANIZATION

With the drop-in centre at 2155 Dowler Place closed for good, the
Society of Living Intravenous Drug Users is back to relying on posters
and volunteer street outreach to help people battling addiction. In
the past month, the society has revamped its board of directors, and
members are focused on finding funding to keep the group up and running.

"The guiding goals, I think for SOLID are still there," says new board
member Gordon Harper. "There is a need to create a way in which folks
who use substances can have a voice, and have a place at tables where
they haven't been at before."

The advocacy group--modeled after the Vancouver Area Network of Drug
Users--formed in March, shortly after the successful Victoria run of
Nettie Wild's documentary FIX: The Story of an Addicted City. On June
4, former SOLID president Garth Perry opened the drop-in centre. The
idea was to give users a place to access services or simply get off
the streets. Unfortunately, says Harper, opening the centre was just
too much, too quickly. Perry has since left the group, and could not
be contacted by press time.

"Garth wanted to do the right thing, but he wanted to do it faster
than others [did]," says Harper. "Garth has vanished . . . I want to
commend him for the complete commitment of time and energy and focus
it took to get [SOLID] off the ground . . . I think he found himself
in a situation kind of like an avalanche."

Harper says board member Michel Breton, who has years of previous
experience as a street outreach worker, has been keeping SOLID's
needle exchange and street outreach going. "He's kind of being SOLID
at the moment," Harper says.

Breton says it's been tough on the group to close the drop-in centre,
because people were beginning to depend on it, and trusted that it
would be available to them.

"We were not ready, and we were not staffed properly with enough
volunteers," he says. "And the rent wasn't paid for July, so we had to
close. It hurt SOLID . . . people are angry that we withdrew that service."

Breton says the next step for the group is to build trust with the
community, and seek out funding so volunteers can continue with street
outreach. "We don't have a base . . . we don't have a phone," he says.
"We're in the red . . . I'm hoping to set up at least a contact phone
number with a mailbox. And we need a place, even if it's just a closet
for [storing] supplies."

SOLID meetings still happen at 7 p.m. every Wednesday, at 926 View
Street. Breton says board members are thinking of changing the group's
logo--currently, it's a skull--and possibly even its name. "We don't
want to alienate people who smoke crack or use other non-intravenous
drugs," he says. SOLID is also starting to work more closely with
other support service agencies in the city.

Councillor Charlayne Thornton-Joe says she's glad to see SOLID
"reaching out to other community partners," and says while she can't
speak on behalf of the city, she personally thinks the changes the
SOLID board is making are good ones. "It isn't something we've
discussed [at council meetings]" she says. "But I think . . . working
with community partners is a positive movement."

Harper says SOLID board members and the community the group serves
just need to be patient.

"Getting our feet under us is the first order of business--and then,
just seeing how best we can serve the people we're intended to serve,"
he says.