Pubdate: Tue, 02 Sep 2003
Source: Ubyssey (CN BC Edu)
Contact:  http://www.ubyssey.bc.ca/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/706

A SLAP TO THE FACE?

We realise that you're a little bit anxious and--hopefully--excited.
Oh, you bright-eyed, bushy-tailed students back from summer!

You make us sick. We at The Ubyssey have been around long enough to
have the weight of everything that goes wrong here make us droop our
eyelids and gag on our bile. Be cynical. Read on.

THE DOWNTOWN EAST SIDE

Despite campaign promises by Mayor Larry Campbell last year, safe
injection sites have yet to be opened in the Downtown East Side
(DTES). In July it was reported that they may be up and running by
September. Well, it is now September and those doors haven't opened.

This is a sad, representative example of the general lack of action to
help heal arguably the worst section of urbanity in Canada. The
HIV/AIDS epidemic inherent to the DTES has been described as the worst
in the developed world by the Human Rights Watch, with approximately
40 per cent of the nearly 5000 drug users testing positive for the
disease. And that is just those who have been tested.

In fact, the only part of the supposed four-pillar plan--prevention,
treatment, harm reduction and enforcement--that has actually taken
place has been that of enforcement: a special Community Wide
Enforcement Team was sent on 24-hour patrols of the drug-ridden
corridor last spring to arrest and heckle sometimes innocent
residents. The only result of this plan was to push those in need
further from the resources that are placed in the DTES to help them.
Outreach workers in the area reported that when the enforcement plan
went ahead only a fraction of the sterile syringes were being given
out at exchange points. This could mean that less drugs were being
used, but more likely it's an indication that fewer clean needles were
being used by addicts.

So where, one must ask, has the $20 million in federal and provincial
government funding gone? In a deal announced in 2000 the city asked
for, and got, funding to battle social, economic and health problems
in the DTES. The four-pillar approach advocated by Campbell is
proposed to cost about $20 million for the first few years of
implementation. Has all that money been eaten up by enforcement before
any of the other three pillars have been built? Why is no one asking
where the other pillars are?

As a community we need to become more critical of actions, or the lack
there of, pertaining to the DTES. Real people need our help.
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake