MAYOR ADDRESSES VANCOUVER'S DRUG PROBLEM

BCCN recently spoke with Vancouver Mayor Philip Owen, who attends St.
John's Shaughnessy Anglican Church, about various proposals for dealing
with the city's drug problems.

BCCN: You've been quoted as saying that the city hasn't moved fast enough
on the drug issue.

What is your response to First United Church's proposal to open a temporary
safe injection site?

Owen: Well, I don't think you can talk about just safe injection sites.

Have you read our 86-page document on a framework for action -- the
'four-pillar' approach?

Well, there's 37 action plans there, there's probably 28 things you have to
do, and safe injection sites is maybe number 23. . . . [Safe injection
sites] are successful in England and in Holland and Switzerland and
particularly in Germany, and the Lord Mayor of Sydney, Australia was here,
and they're successful, but you need a whole bunch of things.

A holistic approach, a continuum of care.

We've got four pillars: prevention, treatment, enforcement, harm reduction.
Each one's got a whole bunch of actions that need to take place. You need
to try and get people that are on heroin and drug use off completely,
abstinence-based, or you need to get them on substitution, like methadone.
You need to get the drug pushers and dealers and enforce them, and put them
in jail. They're murdering people. Deport them if they're not Canadian
citizens . . .

We've just opened a drug treatment court a few weeks ago, and you need it
all. You need everything, so it's all or nothing. For First United Church
to just open a safe injection site without it fitting into an overall
strategy and plan, to do it without co-ordination with other activities
that need to take place, I think is wrong.

If you spend your effort and energy as a church teaching the gospel and
trying to convert people and stimulate their spiritual lives, that's
probably the first thing they should be doing. I just don't think you can
isolate any one of the many things we're recommending in the 86-page
document we've produced.

BCCN: Last year at this time we ran a story profiling the overall plan.
It's true at that time we did focus more on the harm reduction issue
because it tends to be the more controversial issue.

Since it is a church that has said they would open this site, and since in
Australia and other countries it has been said that it was faith
communities opening sites and prodding governments to act that brought
these things into existence, has First United's action actually pushed the
city at all?

Owen: No, they should fit into the overall solution [not] jumping out front
of the program . . .

The safe injection site issue is something that is working.

It's a means of opening the door for drug addicts into treatment because
you have some contact with them. They do it in a clean, safe environment,
supervised and you also get to know those people.

Because now they're in the lane, busy doing their thing.

The idea of the centre is a bridge into treatment, that's what it is. . . .
It shouldn't be held in a vacuum. For hard-core addicts that you're trying
to rehabilitate, if you can have them into a facility where there's some .
. . cleanliness and safety and have contact with them, know who they are
and where they live and what their needs are, it'll in a lot of cases prove
to be an entree into abstinence-based treatment, renewal, turning their
lives around.

The hard line people say 'well, let's incarcerate them all.' Well, that
doesn't work, there's no place in the world they're throwing everybody into
jail. You can't just go handing out free cocaine and heroin to everybody;
you can't ignore it, so you've got to manage it . . .

I just got a call from Maple Ridge, and they've got an epidemic out there.

They say it's all in Vancouver, which is wrong, it's all over, in every
city in the entire world.

The mayor of Yokohama tells me a year ago that the worst problem they have
is heroin and cocaine. What's he doing about it? Well, he says 'we're not
doing anything, we don't know what to do about it.'

We're finally doing something. So please participate in the activities
which the experts say are going to start to solve this problem and help the
people in need . . .

BCCN: Is the general observation of city council that the church at large
would be against [the city's plan]?

Owen: A lot of churches are. But a lot of other churches that are
understanding of it are saying, like I said, that you can't incarcerate
your way out, you can't legalize your way out, you can't ignore it, so I
think the right thing from a spiritual point of view is to help these people.

If you recognize that the user is sick, and the dealer is evil, then you
can start to accept reality.

But if you're going to be blanket about it in a basic fundamentalist way
from any spiritual dimension, I think fundamentalism is basically very
dangerous.

It's very, very narrow thinking that doesn't allow for negotiation or
compromise or compassion, or understanding of a very difficult situation.

BCCN: What is the role of other levels of government in getting all of
these steps in motion? I understand some things have already taken place in
the last year, but what are we waiting on?

Owen: We're waiting on the public to get onside, and they're onside, and we
have to move slowly on it. You've got to move the politicians, you've got
to move the public, the social service agencies, the caregivers, and those
that are funding all these things in a unified way because there's a lack
of understanding of narcotics and this terrible decay, all the property
crime and theft that goes along with it. You've got to move slowly. We've
moved faster than anybody else, we're recognized as sort of leading in this
area. We've got tremendous broad public support. I think it's because it's
so complex that you've got to try and educate people.

It takes a little time to read an 86-page document and understand it.

We say to the people that are critical, don't pick one issue out. And if
you don't like our 86-page document, where's your 86-page document on what
we ought to do about it? Nobody's produced one. Nobody. So, the public is
telling us 'you're on the right course, just keep going and don't go too
slow and don't go too fast, but move in a direction of renewal and change
and understanding', and that's what we're doing . . .

You've got to go and get funding, you've got to get the government, you've
got to have a public process, you've got to go through a permitting
process, they've got to have licenses, you've got to physically find a
location, financing and the renovations. You don't snap your fingers and do
that overnight, and we only passed the document last May. We're moving as
fast as we possibly can and faster than anybody else. The federal
government and the provincial government are very, very supportive of what
we're doing.

BCCN: I understand that you regularly walk through the downtown eastside.

What inspires you to do this?

Owen: I think that I'm elected to understand and work with all the
citizens, and there's a lot of hurting citizens that are in trouble. If you
want to get down to the fundamentals of it, if you read the scriptures,
that's what Jesus did. He walks amongst the poor and helps the poor and
helps those in need. There's a lot of people down there in need and I'm
there trying to help.