DRUG DEATHS DOWN

Drug overdose deaths have plummeted as the city pays more attention to its
drug problem.

Overdoses dropped from 69 in the first nine months of last year to 40 for
the same period this year, which police, the coroners service and Downtown
Eastside outreach workers attribute to increased use of crack cocaine over
heroin, more harm reduction programs and stepped-up police enforcement.

Insp. Bob Rich, who began his job this week as district commander of the
area, applauds the fact that the problems of the Downtown Eastside are
front and centre in this civic election campaign. Civic politicians from
COPE mayoral candidate Larry Campbell to his NPA rival Jennifer Clarke are
campaigning to tackle the city's drug problem and clean up the Downtown
Eastside.

"What's good about that is the more attention on this issue, the more
likely we will convince people to contribute the things we need to untangle
that ball of yarn," Rich said.

Jeannine Robinson, regional coroner responsible for Vancouver, said
overdose deaths are occurring predominantly in the Downtown Eastside as a
result of drug users using heroin, cocaine or a mixture of the two drugs
sometimes topped off with alcohol.

Robinson, who called the decrease in overdose deaths "pretty significant,"
said the drop could be a reflection of harm reduction work by health
agencies and organizations such as the Vancouver Area Network of Drug
Users, but hesitated to offer a definitive reason.

"That would be great, actually, if that was the case, but there isn't
enough information available at this time."

However, Dean Wilson, president of the Vancouver Area Network of Drug
Users, insists his organization's daily needle exchange and drug awareness
work on the streets were contributing factors in the reduction in deaths.

Wilson said despite police efforts to get drugs off the street, large
quantities of heroin and cocaine are still available. "There's no shortage
of drugs, so you can't tell me that it's interdiction efforts that are
causing this decrease," said Wilson, a recovering heroin addict.

"It's the education of drug users and the subtle messages from user to user
that say, 'Please be safe, we don't need a memorial.' The smarter anybody
is about any topic, the better off they are."

Acting Insp. Rollie Woods of the Vancouver police department's drug section
said police have arrested about 1,000 drug dealers in the city this year,
about 80 per cent of whom who were selling crack cocaine in the Downtown
Eastside.

The other 20 per cent were mostly selling heroin, although police also
busted dealers for selling methamphetamine, a manufactured synthetic drug
popular with the rave set and teenagers.

Woods said a pebble-sized rock of cocaine sells for about $10 while a
similar amount of heroin-commonly sold as a "flap"-goes for about $20.
Crack is usually smoked while heroin is injected with a syringe into a
vein-a difference that lessens the chance of a crack user dying of an
overdose, he said.

Michael Clague, executive director of the Carnegie Community Centre, points
to police efforts to remove drug dealers from single-room occupancy hotels
as a factor in reducing overdose deaths.

"People can get into difficulty in their rooms and have an overdose and die
there," said Clague, recalling the hundreds of overdose deaths from
high-purity heroin that occurred in the late 1990s.

However, Clague noted at least one person a week overdoses outside the
Carnegie Centre, a refuge for addicts and residents at the corner of Main
and Hastings.

The addition of the Health Contact Centre, located next door to the
Carnegie, and the city's fledgling drug court-where petty drug
dealers-addicts enter treatment programs instead of going to jail-have also
probably helped reduce drug deaths.

Despite the attention the Downtown Eastside gets for its drug problem,
Wilson offers this sobering thought: "You don't have to be in the Downtown
Eastside to die of this shit. You can be in West Vancouver, Kitsilano-you
could be in Shaughnessy. The wrong mix of drugs is going to kill you."