Pubdate: Mon, 27 May 2002
Source: Report Magazine (CN AB)
Edition: BC
Copyright: 2002 Report Magazine, United Western Comm Ltd
Contact:  http://www.report.ca/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1327
Author: Terry O'Neill
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/hr.htm (Harm Reduction)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?137 (Needle Exchange)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?142 (Safe Injecting Rooms)

THE WAR AGAINST INDULGENCE

A Symposium Launches A Counterattack Against Pro-Drug 'Harm Reduction' Programs

In early May, Marc Emery, the president of the B.C. Marijuana Party, bought 
full-page newspaper advertisements to announce his intention to run for the 
mayoralty of Vancouver. The one-day media blitz, estimated to have cost him 
$25,000, centred on Mr. Emery's contention that the use of marijuana should 
be decriminalized. But in coincidental interviews with reporters, the drug 
libertarian went much further. He said, for example, that a Marijuana Party 
administration would order city hall to set up a program to deliver free 
heroin and cocaine to addicts.

Mr. Emery will not likely win the mayoralty this coming fall; after all, he 
finished fourth in the 1996 election after counting only 1,125 votes. It 
may be, however, that the wealthy marijuana-seed merchandiser has already 
accomplished what he set out to do: push the boundaries of the 
"harm-reduction" debate in Vancouver. Indeed, his "free delivery" idea is a 
logical extension of harm-reduction policies already embraced by most civic 
leaders, social workers and the daily press in the city.

On the other hand, a highly motivated group of community activists, for 
whom harm reduction is anathema, has now begun to mobilize. Frustrated and 
angry at the harm-reduction wave inundating the city, the concerned 
citizens held an international symposium in Vancouver over the first three 
days of May to press their case that the best response to drug use is 
anti-drug education, tough laws, vigorous enforcement and rehabilitation. 
Typically, however, the pro-harm-reduction mainstream media either treated 
their conference with hostility or consigned coverage of it to back pages.

Harm-reduction advocates believe it is useless, even counter-productive, to 
fight drug use. Tough laws and hard-nosed police officers only marginalize 
addicts, they say. That, in turn, results in unsafe needle use (which can 
spread hepatitis and AIDS) and a witches' brew of other unhealthy 
activities, all of which lead to an early grave. Far better, say the 
advocates, that government accommodate the addicts with street-level health 
services, needle-exchange programs and, most controversially, 
safe-injection sites at which addicts can be monitored and assisted by 
medical personnel.

On May 2, Vancouver city council voted unanimously to take part in a 
proposed national harm-reduction pilot program, which would include 
safe-injection sites, likely in the city's drug-plagued skid row, otherwise 
known as the downtown eastside. Although Health Canada has yet to approve 
the project--and although the Criminal Code of Canada still outlaws even 
simple possession of cocaine and heroin--drugs are now consumed with 
impunity on the eastside.

Earlier, Mayor Philip Owen announced his support for a "four-pillars" 
approach: prevention, treatment, enforcement and harm reduction. 
Vancouver's Dr. Peter Centre for people with HIV and AIDS has also embraced 
harm reduction; the centre confirmed in mid-April that its nurses "observe" 
drug addicts injecting themselves with cocaine and heroin--with the aim of 
teaching them about proper usage of needles. Similarly, a church in the 
downtown eastside constructed a model safe-injection site in April, to show 
the public how such a facility would look.

The use of the drug methadone, a heroin replacement, is already widely 
accepted as a harm-reduction measure. But harm reductionists do not want to 
stop there. In a story that foreshadowed Mr. Emery's public-relations 
blitz, the Vancouver Province reported in late April that the Canadian 
Institutes of Health Research in Ottawa would soon approve a $6-million 
program to prescribe heroin to 80 hard-core Vancouver addicts. A spokesman 
for the body confirms an announcement is expected soon. The plan has the 
backing of two top Vancouver medical researchers, doctors Michael 
O'Shaughnessy and Martin Schechter, and provincial medical health officer 
Dr. Perry Kendall.

The problem with the four-pillars approach, reply organizers of the 
International Drug Education and Awareness Symposium (IDEAS), is that there 
is precious little prevention being carried out, even less treatment, and 
virtually no enforcement. In fact, one IDEAS participant told the 
conference that a typical Canadian police officer lays only one 
drug-related charge a year. And with only a single "pillar" actually in 
place, that being harm reduction, the consequences could be devastating to 
society.

The symposium's prime organizer and spokeswoman was Lynda Bentall who, 
along with her philanthropist husband Robert, a wealthy property developer, 
runs an innovative rehabilitation and education program for street kids, 
the Ailanthus Achievement Centre for Inner-City Youth. In that capacity, 
Mrs. Bentall has seen first-hand the devastation that drug use can bring, 
and believes the last thing the children of Canada need is a policy that 
"normalizes" and thus encourages drug use.

"Something we all have in common, I hope, is a concern for our nation," 
Mrs. Bentall said of those attending the symposium. "A concern that illicit 
drugs are damaging our families, our businesses, our way of life and 
possibly the future of our country. Maybe today is an important day in 
Canada's history."

It was certainly a controversial one, as harm-reduction advocates rallied 
for several hours in front of the conference site, denouncing the 
proceedings inside as murderous. Dean Wilson, president of a group called 
the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users (VANDU), unleashed a not-so-veiled 
threat when he told the cheering crowd that Mrs. Bentall should be aware 
that "civil disobedience is the poor man's atomic bomb." Later, Mr. Wilson 
and other activists walked through downtown Vancouver, affixing 
pro-safe-injection-site posters to lampposts.

In an earlier interview, Mr. Wilson said the symposium was "ridiculous" 
because it did not invite drug-use proponents to make addresses. "I think 
it's just a rich woman who wants to somehow further her views by spending 
her money." Mrs. Bentall responded by wondering whether groups such as 
VANDU are pawns of organized crime. "Oh, I don't know [for sure]," she 
says. "All I know is that VANDU gets money from our government...and then 
they are given free rein in our city. They have been known to damage 
property, they threaten, they use coercion, they use fear, and nothing 
happens to them."

Symposium supporter Toby Hinton, a Vancouver police officer who has long 
worked the downtown eastside, says some elements of harm reduction can be 
beneficial, as long as harm reduction does not predominate in the fight 
against drugs. "We're looking at taking a bit of a different tack, and 
focusing on prevention and treatment," he says, "because I think that harm 
reduction and the discussion of it as a pseudo-science, if you will, has 
hijacked some of the other good work and undermined our efforts in trying 
to clean up and deal with the problems."

On its own, harm reduction is "lowering the bar" and making drug use more 
acceptable, the officer says. "Giving the drug addict everything he wants 
for his habit--when my definition of a drug addict is a very self-indulgent 
person--is the wrong route to go," he states. "I think that all you'll hear 
[from addicts] is 'more, more, more, more, more.'"

He concludes, "Instead of trying to make people comfortable in the toilet 
bowl, give them a hand to try to get them out of the toilet bowl, and help 
them get into recovery and fixed up and on their way to a healthy life."

This Time, Sweden Got It Right

THE experience of easy-going European countries with tolerant drugs laws is 
often advanced by Canadian harm-reduction proponents as evidence to support 
their call for this country to adopt a laissez-faire approach to drugs. 
However, facts made public at the IDEAS conference paint another picture of 
the European experience.

Swiss physician Ernst Aeschbach said the "drug-friendly environment" 
adopted by his country's government has backfired. "There has been a 
general increase of prevalence of all kinds of drugs," he said. "The 
increase in drug-related deaths shows a close relation to the existence of 
open drug scenes in Zurich." As harm-reduction measures facilitated drug 
consumption, drug addicts were deprived of their motivation to quit. "This 
was a violation of basic principles of addiction treatment," Dr. Aeschbach 
charged. Other speakers said the same facts apply to the Netherlands.

The government of Sweden, on the other hand, has adopted a successful 
zero-tolerance approach to drugs. Anti-drug laws that carry stiff penalties 
are enforced by the police and judiciary. The country considers no drug to 
be "soft." The result, according to a paper presented at the symposium, is 
that Sweden has "an unusually small proportion of heroin abusers."

It is the sort of approach that David Griffin, executive officer of the 
Canadian Police Association, would like to see implemented in Canada. He 
told the symposium that current Canadian anti-drug practices are 
inadequate. "Perceived tolerance by community leaders is sending 
conflicting and confusing messages to our young people," he charged. 
"Accurate information educating parents and young people about the harms 
associated with drug use is critical to prevention."

Mr. Griffin also said Canada is not "losing the war on drugs" (as so often 
contended by harm-reduction advocates) because, in fact, there is no war on 
drugs in this country. "Our policies lack coordination and consistency and 
focus disproportionate attention on the hard-core drug user." He called on 
governments to develop a national strategy, backed by role models and 
community leaders, to fight drug use, cut demand and supply, and provide 
treatment and rehabilitation. "We should be focused on demand reduction," 
he stated, "not harm reduction."
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MAP posted-by: Beth