COUN. CLARKE RESPONDS TO DRUG ISSUE CRITICISM

To the editor:

Allen Garr's recent column on the Downtown Eastside and drug injection
sites implies I'm not in favour of the four-pillar approach to the drug
issue or supervised injection sites ("Clarke's drug views belong in the
archives," April 24).

Not so.

Like my colleagues on council, I continue to support the much-talked-about
four-pillar approach, which provides an integrated framework for dealing
with the tragedy of drug addiction and its debilitating impact on people
and neighborhoods. I've also had the chance to take a firsthand look at a
similar approach taken in both Frankfurt and Amsterdam, which pioneered the
notion that drug addiction is, first and foremost, a health issue.

In both cities, injection sites are part of a completely integrated plan
that combines law enforcement with treatment and harm reduction. It
certainly doesn't amount to supervised injection sites without coordinated
implementation connected to treatment services and the strictest law
enforcement. The fact that Frankfurt and Amsterdam have integrated plans
helps ensure that their programs work, and that's what I want to see in
Vancouver.

The controversy over the possibility of a piloted supervised injection site
has arisen because there has been no discussion yet with the affected
communities and responsible agencies about how it would be implemented, and
how it would integrate into the other pillars of the four-pillar approach,
namely, treatment, enforcement and prevention. Clearly, this is a
discussion that should take place and should include measurable and
accountable goals for success.

Supervised injection sites are an excellent way to introduce addicts to a
continuum of care if they are implemented in a way that introduces them to
that continuum. They also help reduce drug overdose deaths and spread of
disease through use of dirty needles. But let's be clear: the addict, after
fixing in the clean site, still has to go back out into the street to find
his next fix from a criminal drug dealer and finance it through theft or
prostitution. That means the neighbourhood around the site is still subject
to the criminal behaviour of the desperate addict and the addict has no
relief from the cycle of addiction unless he or she has access to treatment.

The further way to reduce harm to the addict and the neighbourhoods already
plagued by crime, street prostitution, boarded-up buildings and failing
businesses because of the drug trade, is to give the addict a way out of
the desperate cycle of addiction, as they do in Amsterdam and Frankfurt,
through improved access to detox, methadone and other forms of support and
treatment, including scientific trials with heroin maintenance for addicts
who've failed other treatment.

Drug injection sites alone aren't the answer any more than needle exchanges
alone were the answer, not for the addicts, not for the neighborhoods and
not for our city. Add treatment and law enforcement to the mix in a
well-coordinated plan, as they do in the most successful of cities, and
we'll see a real chance for success here in Vancouver.

Jennifer Clarke, councillor, Vancouver