DRUG ADDICTION: FORCING OURSELVES TO FACE REALITY

Afilm that chronicles Vancouver's struggles to deal with drug addiction on
the notorious downtown Eastside of the city is coming to Kelowna.

Called Fix, The Story of an Addicted City, the documentary has earned rave
reviews and national media attention for its up-close and personal
portrayal of a real story about real people, a story the director said she
could never have had the imagination to dream up on her own.

Nettie Wild said the film is about to be given a featured showing tour in
theatres around the southern Interior, including a three-day stop in
Kelowna May 2-4, where the documentary will be shown at the Paramount Theatre.

While interior community residents in cities like Kelowna may feel a sense
of detachment because the film focuses on Vancouver, Wild says that
perception is a big mistake.

"The reality about the Eastside is that most of the people who are down
there, living on the streets, addicted to drugs, have come from other
communities, just like Kelowna," Wild says. "It's not simply a Vancouver
problem, that is just where these people tend to end up."

She talks about a recent preview the film received in Cranbrook, a city
living within what she calls a very unhealthy dynamic--a drug problem
exists that nobody wants to acknowledge and the code of silence ensures
nobody will ever hear about it.

"There are five ski hills around Cranbrook and we know that where ski hills
are located, the incidence of injected drug use goes way up. Communities
like that are just kidding themselves if they try to sweep the problem
under the rug," Wild says.

"The reality is everywhere we go to talk about this film, we hear from
local residents that their community is different from Vancouver. But if I
ask for a show of hands how many people know of someone who is snorting,
shooting or smoking cocaine on a regular basis, about 75 per cent of the
audience raises their hands."

Wild is hopeful that discussion forums held with the audience after the
showing of her documentary will open people up to talking about the local
drug problem and begin to chip away at the pervasive public attitude that
drug addiction is not a medical illness, but rather a long-stigmatized
stereotype of an individual's personal weakness.

"We have found that these screenings and the forums that follow have tended
to open up discussion about the unspeakables, accepting the fact that drug
addiction is a problem in their community and needs to be addressed."

Appearing at the Kelowna screening forums will be former Vancouver mayor
Philip Owen, a pivotal political figure in the documentary, and James
Tigchelaar, with the B.C. Centre for Disease Control's provincial street
nurses program.

Owen offers a fascinating character study in Fix because of his commitment
to help clean up the Eastside by advocating safe injection clinics for
chronic street drug addicts.

A popular mayor from one of Vancouver's wealthiest families, Owen elected
to stick his neck out to bring about social service change on the Eastside,
one example being the safe injection sites.

That stance caused him to be kicked out of his civic party in a political
cue that was embarrassingly played out in the Vancouver media.

In turn, his former party was wiped out at the polls, defeated by former
Vancouver city coroner Larry Campbell and his left-wing civic slate.

"That was part of the magic that happened during this process.

"You had a super conservative guy from an extremely wealthy family forming
alliances with a fellow like Dean Wilson, another character we portray in
the film who is a very loud, very brash, very charismatic, a recovering
addict himself who together realize what needs to be done has to be put
ahead of political expediency."