NEEDLE EXCHANGE NUMBERS DROP DRASTICALLY

An increase in crack cocaine smokers, a sparse heroin supply and police
enforcement could be reasons why the city's largest needle exchange
distributed about 700,000 fewer needles to addicts last year than in 2000.

Judy McGuire, manager of health outreach programs for the Downtown Eastside
Youth Activities Society, said distribution of needles from the society's
vans and centres dropped from 3.4 million in 2000 to 2.7 million last year.

"It's the biggest drop we've seen in years," said McGuire, noting her staff
have told her more people are smoking crack cocaine, crystal
methamphetamine, and some heroin.

Police, health workers and drug addicts acknowledge the increase in crack
smokers in the Downtown Eastside, but note injection heroin use is still
prevalent, despite the sparse supply of heroin.

McGuire, however, points out the society's figures for last year don't
include several weeks of needle exchanges by the Vancouver Area Network of
Drug Users (VANDU), whose table-top service outside the Carnegie Centre has
been greatly affected by police enforcement.

Jim Jones, supervisor of the table-top exchange, said volunteers were
distributing 1,200 needles a shift-which runs from 8 p.m. to 4 a.m.-but
noticed a 50 per cent drop once police beefed up enforcement last fall.

The ongoing enforcement, including the parking of marked police cruisers in
the area and uniformed cops standing on the corner of Main and Hastings,
has shifted the open-air drug market west.

As a result, VANDU closed its exchange last Tuesday and has turned to
distributing needles in the streets to reach addicts afraid of approaching
the table, Jones said.

Donald MacPherson, the city's drug policy coordinator, noted about 150
people a month in the province are being prescribed methadone, which may be
a factor in reduced needle use.

Though a reduction in needle use can be seen as positive, MacPherson points
out addicts could have simply moved to other parts of the Lower Mainland.

"If we're displacing the problem to other jurisdictions where there isn't a
needle exchange or it isn't a very accessible needle exchange, then we're
in fact putting people in harm's way," said MacPherson, noting 16 people
have died of illicit drug overdoses in Vancouver in the first two months of
the year, six more than last year.

Insp. Kash Heed, in charge of Vancouver police's drug squad, believes
long-time heroin addicts might have switched to smoking crack or heroin
because of the risks of contracting a blood-borne disease or overdosing
from injecting the drug. "But I wouldn't hang my hat on just one
theory-it's likely a combination of factors," Heed said.

Smoking heroin brings its own problems. Currently, police and health
agencies are investigating why three people died and seven suffered varying
levels of brain damage in connection with smoking heroin.

Dean Wilson, president of VANDU, attributes the decrease in needle use to
the network's ongoing focus on getting addicts to kick their habits. The
quality of heroin, which is low, may also have played a role in addicts
switching drugs, he said.

But Wilson is worried addicts still using needles could become the city's
next overdose statistics when higher-purity heroin hits the streets.
Hundreds of addicts died in the mid-1990s after Vancouver was flooded with
high purity heroin.

"I don't want to repeat history," Wilson said.