INJECTION SITES A HOT TOPIC FOR COUNCILLORS

The spotlight will be on mayor-apparent Jennifer Clarke on Thursday
when council decides whether it still unanimously supports a proposed
safe injection site and heroin trial planned for the city.

The heroin trial involves giving up to 160 heroin addicts for whom
treatment has failed prescribed heroin in declining doses over 12 to
18 months, while the safe injection site would give addicts a place
to shoot up with clean needles in a supervised setting.

The controversial trials are included in Mayor Philip Owen's
four-pillar plan to deal with chronic drug problems in the Downtown
Eastside. They're also believed to be a factor in Owen's split with
the conservative Non Partisan Association-Owen parted ways with the
NPA after it told him he would have to compete for the mayoral
nomination in this November's civic election.

Clarke, considered the leading candidate for the nomination, has
since said she wants to focus more on treatment before the safe
injection site and heroin trials go ahead.

"Safe injection sites are facilities where the addict brings street
drugs of questionable origin, which have been financed by
prostitution, crime and drug dealing," Clarke said.

"It would not be my preference where you spend the first dollar. I
think, more importantly, we should focus on treatment."

COPE councillor Tim Louis, who brought forward the motion to
re-endorse Owen's drug strategy-which was unanimously supported two
years ago-denies it's part of a plan to split the NPA vote on the
issue.

"It wasn't the intention, but it may be the outcome. This will be a
litmus test and people will be watching Jennifer Clarke. It will be a
vote that will be referred to every single week when the election
campaign starts."

Louis predicts NPA powerbrokers will be watching to see whether other
NPA councillors follow suit if Clarke elects not to support Owen's
drug strategy. That strategy includes a Downtown Eastside Health
Contact Centre for drug addicts that's opposed by many local
businesspeople, who say it attracts addicts to the area.

"[Clarke] may find a way to simultaneously vote for and against the
strategy," said Louis. "She's very good at doing that. She may raise
both of her hands at once."

Provincial health officer Dr. Perry Kendall said focusing on
treatment before safe injection sites are established is not
practical because there's always a percentage of addicts who don't
want treatment or for whom traditional treatment methods don't work.
Kendall said the incidence of HIV and Hepatitis C caused by injection
drug use is of epidemic proportions in the Downtown Eastside

"Supervised consumption sites are where an addict can inject using
clean needles under health-care supervision to prevent needle-sharing
and disease spreading and overdose deaths. You take a public injector
off the street."

Kendall said the safe injection site is ready to go, pending Health
Canada approval, and a three-city heroin trial has already been
approved by the Canadian Institute of Health Research for Vancouver,
Toronto and Montreal. He said the trials could go ahead without city
support if they are conducted on the premises of existing addiction
service facilities.

"It's imperative to conduct these studies. I can't see why council
would not want to. From the city's point of view, it will provide
treatment for 160 hard-core chronic addicts for 12 to 18 months. Why
would the city turn that down?"

Kendall plans to speak at the meeting where council votes on the
motion April 25.

- -With files from Mike Howell.