Pubdate: Tue, 21 Nov 2000
Source: Vancouver Sun (CN BC)
Copyright: The Vancouver Sun 2000
Contact:  200 Granville Street, Ste.#1, Vancouver BC V6C 3N3
Fax: (604) 605-2323
Website: http://www.vancouversun.com/
Note: The 90 page report is online at
http://www.city.vancouver.bc.ca/commsvcs/planning/dtes/noticeboard.htm
Series: Searching for solutions - Fix on the Downtown Eastside
http://www.mapinc.org/thefix.htm

VANCOUVER'S DRUG STRATEGY AND HARM REDUCTION PLAN

Mayor Philip Owen Unveils His Sweeping Plan For City's Drug Crisis.

The city's four goals with its drug strategy.

Push the federal and provincial governments to act.

Restore public order, particularly at Main and Hastings.

Tackle the drug-related health crisis.

Establish a single co-ordinator who can pull everyone together to get
things done

Its 24 Recommendations:

ENFORCEMENT

Increase police drug and organized-crime squads to target mid- and
upper-level dealers

Start a senior-level "drug action team" to co-ordinate response to
neighbourhood drug issues

Start a pilot drug treatment court with a range of options for
treatment

Look for legal changes that would help police and courts go after new
trends in the drug industry, like dial a dope, public drug
consumption, and youth prostitution

Redeploy police officers in the Downtown Eastside to increase their
visibility in the neighbourhood

HARM REDUCTION

Provide short-term shelter and housing options for active drug users
on the street

Set up a task force to look at the possibility of a scientific,
medical project to develop safe injection sites

Set up street-drug testing so that people can get quick information
about changes in quality in order to prevent drug overdoses

Start an overdose-death prevention campaign

TREATMENT

Start a 15-bed treatment unit just for women, women with children, and
pregnant women

Set up 20 treatment beds for young people outside the Downtown
Eastside

Expand support services for families of children who become
users

Set up six medical detox beds at St. Paul's for those with serious
medical problems

Take steps to start clinical trials of drugs like buprenorphine as
possible substitutes for heroin and cocaine addiction, to increase the
options for treatment for people who are methadone resistant

Proceed with the proposed North American research trial into giving
heroin to hard-core addicts

Put needle exchanges into all primary health care clinics, hospitals,
pharmacies and relevant non-profit group sites in the region

Make methadone easier to get, expanding it by 1,000 clients in the
next two years

Provide different kinds of housing for users and people trying to go
clean

Pilot day centres for addicts outside the Downtown Eastside to help
prevent users, especially young people, from getting involved in the
inner-city drug scene

PREVENTION

Start a community process that gives neighbourhoods more power to
combat drug abuse

Develop a pilot citywide school curriculum on drugs and drug
abuse

There are also three recommendations urging provincial ministries, the
provincial government and the federal government to act in the areas
they control. 
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake