Pubdate: Wed, 29 Jun 2005
Source: Province, The (CN BC)
Copyright: 2005 The Province
Contact:  http://www.canada.com/vancouver/theprovince/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/476
Author: Joey Thompson
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/decrim.htm (Decrim/Legalization)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/hr.htm (Harm Reduction)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?137 (Needle Exchange)

WHY CAN'T LAW-ABIDING CITIZENS FEEL SAFE HERE?

Drug-Users' Clinic On Spadina Worries Farm Community

These down-home pensioners, disabled citizens and small shopkeepers 
picked the Chilliwack farming community for its safe, reliable, 
uncomplicated pace.

But their reverie was shattered when addicts and prostitutes cropped 
up on their street seven weeks ago to obtain condoms, bleach kits and 
needles from a newly opened IV drug-users' clinic.

Lorraine Palmer and the 29 seniors in Arbour House, one of at least 
five residential complexes on Spadina, loved strolling the tree-lined 
avenue, savoring fresh roasted coffee and daily baked biscuits at 
John Speagle and Freeman Dryden's cafe, photocopying at Ron Niessen's 
Sure Copy Printing and nursing their aching feet at Wendy Duquette's 
Elegant Nailz.

Not any more.

Business for the group of shop owners near the Fraser Health 
Authority's foray into so-called harm reduction and prevention has 
sunk to where Niessen says bankruptcy is his future.

Citizens Coalition members such as Palmer and Joyce Adanac cite 
incidents of unruly panhandling, assaults and a boost in property 
theft since the clinic opened Friday, May 13. They say drug deals are 
going down around them and store washrooms have been commandeered as 
flop-houses and shooting galleries.

Harm reduction for users and abusers, maybe, but harm introduction 
for folks like a visually impaired young woman who asked that I not 
name her for fear the junkies will track her down. Her seeing-eye dog 
isn't trained to skirt discarded condoms or dirty needles, she says, 
nor is the Labrador aware of how aggressive some users can become 
when a passerby stumbles accidentally into their space.

But not everyone is on the same page. Supporters of the program say 
no problem existed until the coalition folks created one.

Indeed, the nearby United Church has urged its congregation to 
support the harm-reduction project.

Landlord Craig Campbell, who runs Clearview Optical on the same 
block, says he has a three-year-lease with FHA and Fraser Valley 
Connection Services, the private provider awarded the government 
contract to run the facility.

While sympathetic to the residents' concerns, and prepared to look 
into the legalities of breaking the contract, he's seen nothing to 
cause them angst, he said, other than their own fears that say they're at risk.

But the issue is not whether community residents and shop owners -- 
who collectively pay out millions in property and business taxes -- 
are at risk. What matters is they think they're at risk. And the 
gnawing fear that danger lurks around the corner can ruin anyone's 
peace of mind.

Why can't law-abiding folks assume they will spend their later years 
in a safe neighbourhood?

What was the health authority thinking when it unceremoniously dumped 
a needle exchange, condom and bleach kit handout shop in the heart of 
a seniors' living zone?

Why can't the health authorities install these clinics near medical 
sites or in hospital annexes already stocked with the necessary 
resources and emergency staff?

I intended to put these questions to Sherry Mumford, director of the 
FHA's addictions programs, but she didn't return my call.
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MAP posted-by: Beth