DRUG COMMITTEE REPORTS CREATE STIR

A parliamentary committee's endorsement of safe injection sites for drug
addicts handcuffs police, places addicts above the law and aggravates
addiction to illicit drugs, says Randy White, the Canadian Alliance MP for
Langley-Abbotsford.

Ironically, it was White who established the all-party Special
Parliamentary Committee on the Non-Medical Use of Drugs, which released its
report containing 40 wide-reaching recommendations on Dec. 9.

More than half a dozen deal with the topic of "harm reduction" through the
establishment in major cities of needle exchange programs, safe injections
sites and heroin maintenance programs.

But White said that he has seen firsthand that harm reduction is, in
reality, harm extension.

"Why are they promoting programs that will keep addicts on drugs, instead
of programs that will help with detox and rehabilitation?" he asked.

Safe injection sites "will compound chemical dependency to dangerous and
illicit drugs over a much longer period of time," White said.

The committee recommended patterning the sites, including one in Vancouver,
on those which White visited in Europe. He said that the quality of drugs
used is not checked, and for blocks around the sites there is "human
carnage . . . and a substantial gathering of addicts and pushers in the
areas where trafficking and using were reluctantly permitted."

In an interview last week with MetroValley News, White said that it is a
matter of "whether we have the social conscience to put these people where
they can be helped. It's not easy but accommodating their drug use is not
helping them."

But White does like several of the committee's recommendations,
particularly the creation of a national drug commissioner, drug-use surveys
conducted across the country, increased funding for the Canadian Centre on
Substance Abuse, and more study of prescription drug abuse.

As well, White welcomes recommendations to seize the property of drug
dealers and putting the proceeds into community-based drug programs, and
converting two prisons into drug treatment facilities for inmates.

* Giving LIFE a hand

MetroValley News

A Christian-based treatment program for women addicted to drugs and alcohol
has been given a helping hand by an outgoing member of Abbotsford city council.

In his last official motion as a councillor, John Redekop moved last week
to call for city staff not to go ahead with a new zoning for the LIFE
Recovery Association House at 2693 Braeside, near Ten Broeck elementary.

In November of 2000, council voted unanimously to create a new
institutional zone "with the specific intent of making it difficult for the
LIFE Recovery Association to launch its rehabilitation service," Redekop
told the outgoing council's last regular meeting. That decision was "not
council's finest hour," said Redekop, "even though we voted in good
conscience."

After investigation on his own, Redekop said he supports Braeside - which
is not a detox centre but a rehabilitation centre whose "success rate is
impressive."

His call to suspend new zoning on the property will be forwarded to the new
city council.