MAYOR'S DRUG TREATMENT COMMITTEE PLANS TO HAVE PROPOSAL
READY BY JUNE

It will be several months before a non-profit created to get Mayor Sam
Sullivan's drug treatment plan off the ground will apply to Health
Canada for approval.

Lois Johnson, executive director of Inner Change, said the
non-profit's clinical advisory committee met for the first time
Monday. The committee plans to submit the proposal by the end of June,
Johnson said.

But a possible federal election before the end of the year could
complicate plans. Any approval of a program that requires an exemption
under the country's drug laws must be signed off by Health Minister
Tony Clement.

Johnson acknowledged one concern is finding enough doctors trained in
addictions to prescribe medication. "There are all sorts of external
things that could affect the success or failure of the project," said
Johnson, who was B.C. co-chair for Clement's leadership bid for the
Conservatives in 2003.

Counselling and housing has to be in place for the program to work,
she added.

Inner Change told the federal government in February it wanted to
develop a program to give prescription medication to up to 800
drug-addicted criminals in the Downtown Eastside. Which prescription
drugs the program would use hasn't been finalized, and such details
will form part of the proposal the committee will prepare over the
next few months. The non-profit has hired a research scientist to help
draft the proposal.

Both the scientist and Johnson are being paid with $50,000 donated by
Dr. Donald Rix of MDS Metro Laboratory services. Rix and former
Conservative MP John Reynolds are the chairs of Inner Change.

The society is considering tying the treatment program into the
community court expected to open in the fall at the provincial
courthouse at 222 Main near Hastings Street. The court would allow a
judge to impose a broad range of sentences-everything from jail to
rehabilitation or a combination with an emphasis on repaying the
community for harm done.

"We're hoping to make it very easy for them to go right from the court
into our program," she said. "We would be dealing with small numbers
to begin with. We're not talking about dragging 800 people off the
street."

A community court would be separate from the drug court that has
operated at the provincial courthouse since December 2001.
Participants are longtime addicts, most of whom started using drugs in
their teens. Many are infected with Hepatitis C and HIV and have
criminal histories tied to smalltime drug dealing and petty theft.

A person graduates when they are clean of cocaine, heroin or crystal
methamphetamine for the last three months of what is usually a year to
18-month treatment program. But the drug court, which provides an
alternative to serving time in jail, doesn't provide prescription
medication to drug users, except for methadone. The mayor's plan
recognizes that methadone is not successful with all addicts.

That's why it's crucial to find doctors trained in addictions, Johnson
said.

"They have to be very capable in this area because it's not an easy
thing. It's not just substituting one drug for another. There are many
different reasons people get on drugs. There are underlying mental
health issues that one drug may help and one drug may hurt. You can't
treat them all the same."

The Vancouver Police Department has stayed away from the public debate
surrounding the mayor's treatment plan. Deputy chief Doug LePard told
the Courier in February that the police are "not here to serve a
political agenda."

If the proposal is approved by Health Canada, LePard said the
department would not stand in the way of a legal initiative. The VPD
supported the opening and extension of the supervised injection site.