LOCAL INJECTION SITES ARE NOT WANTED

This week's resolution, that makes it clear safe injection sites and needle
exchanges are not wanted locally, will prevent Abbotsford from becoming a
"magnet for socially destructive" activities, says the councillor who
created it.

Abbotsford Coun. Simon Gibson's motion at the committee level Monday was
endorsed unanimously later that night by regular council.

"I was pretty happy about that," he told the Abbotsford News yesterday. "I
expected one or two pockets of opposition, but that didn't happen."

Gibson said the council initiative is a "pro-active response" to the recent
recommendations of the House of Commons Special Committee on the
Non-Medical use of Drugs, which came down in December.

Harm reduction figured prominently in the committee's final report, which
has yet to be adopted by the federal government - but which Vancouver Mayor
Larry Campbell says he will adopt via safe injection sites.

Stressed Gibson: "They (council) didn't want to see the ethos of the
Vancouver strategy imposed upon Abbotsford.

"The feedback I get is if we subscribe to what is called harm reduction,
given Abbotsford's size, we could become a magnet for socially destructive
activity," said the councillor.

Abbotsford Police Chief Ian Mackenzie had earlier stressed the need for
detox and rehabilitation in a budget presentation to council.

"Detox is not harm reduction, it's treatment," he told the Abbotsford News.
"I understand the mixed message harm reduction sends - here's a needle to
do your fix. That may be useful from a health perspective, but more
importantly, we should be saying here is detox, rehabilitation to deal with
your dependency."

The motion means council is "unequivocally opposed" to safe injection
sites, needle exchanges, free-standing methadone clinics and mobile drug
dispensing units.

Elected officials also voted to strike a made-in-Abbotsford task force on
how to deal with crimes that have created a "social malaise" in the city,
such as drug dealing and prostitution.

The resolution followed advice from Langley-Abbotsford Alliance MP Randy
White, who stated bluntly from his experience in Europe visiting safe
injection sites, harm reduction is "just harm extension."

"At one in Switzerland, people came in, were given a needle, and would go
into a stupor until someone removed them - and then they're replaced by
someone else.

"I saw more filth and human carnage than on the downtown East Side," said
the MP.

White plans a town hall meeting aimed at students and parents to show them
the hazards of popular drugs such as ecstacy, and intends to bring the
Second Chance program - which he viewed during a recent visit to a Mexican
prison with U.S. and Mexican drug enforcement officials - to Canada.

Of particular concern to Gibson is recommendation 23 of the
Liberal-dominated committee, which states in part the federal government
should encourage the "development of protocols to determine the
effectiveness of safe injection facilities in reducing the social and
health problems related to injection drug use."