CANADIAN ALLIANCE MP BLASTS BC POLICY ON SAFE INJECTION SITES

VANCOUVER (CUP) - BC's provincial government has been silent on
Vancouver's plan to open a safe injection site in the drug-plagued
Downtown Eastside for too long and needs to say where it stands on the
issue now, said Canadian Alliance MP John Duncan.

The comments come not a week after a 200-page proposal to install
Canada's first safe injection sites at two Vancouver locations was
submitted to Health Canada by the Vancouver Coastal Health Authority.

That proposal was endorsed by Vancouver's city council and police
department, along with the BC Centre for Disease Control and the BC
Centre for Excellence in HIV-AIDS.

Sitting next to BC Premier Gordon Campbell in the Morris J. Wosk
Centre for Dialogue in downtown Vancouver, the MP for Vancouver Island
North criticised the BC government last week for not adopting a firmer
position on detox, rehabilitation, intervention, education and
enforcement in BC's drug war.

"The silence of the province on these issues signals acceptance [of
drug addiction]," said Duncan to the packed auditorium of MPs and
provincial MLAs.

There are about 125,000 intravenous drug users in Canada, according to
the BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS. More than 2000 people have
died of drug overdoses in Canada since 1992.

The province's silence on the safe injection site issue has a lot to
do with whether Vancouver will remain as committed to the program as
the November 16 civic election suggested, said Duncan at a media scrum
after the speech.

"Clearly, the pro-harm reduction crowd did very well in the Vancouver
elections, so the province doesn't want to get involved until such
time as the sort of euphoria of the municipal elections is more
distant," said Duncan. "That's what I think is happening."

Solicitor General Rich Coleman said the province doesn't have "a pat
response" for any part of the safe injection site issue at this time.

But to Premier Campbell, Victoria's position has been clear from the
start.

"We have a position. The position is they have to be legal, there has
to be a Canada-wide position, there has to be a way that we can move
forward that's constructive, that's building on sound provincial
policy," said Campbell. "We've been clear. You need a national
framework for this."

Norman Ruff, a University of Victoria political scientist, said it is
not surprising that the BC government has not spoken plainly about
safe injection sites - part of the prevention, treatment, harm
reduction and law enforcement approach to drug addiction imported from
Switzerland by former Vancouver mayor Phillip Owen in 2001 - since it
is an issue that might cause conflict within a party supported by a
broad base of social conservatism.

"[The BC Liberals] are not closing off the possibility, but they're
not wildly enthusiastic about it," he said. "They will likely leave
the issue for local communities to deal with."

Meanwhile, Duncan's claims that safe injection sites require police to
turn "a blind eye" to drug trafficking, and will increase gang
activity and the drug culture are unfounded, said Vancouver Mayor
Larry Campbell.

"It's just a myth that's being used by those who basically don't want
to help people get better," said Mayor Campbell. "On [the safe
injection site] issue at least, there's a lot of dinosaurs in the
Alliance party."

Duncan's claim that users and dealers will flock to safe injection
sites is also unfounded since the Downtown Eastside is already
saturated with them, said William Elliot at the corner of Hastings and
Cordova, next to a woman shooting heroin into her arm.

"I don't think you could get more dealers down here," said Elliot.