Pubdate: Fri, 14 Dec 2007 Source: Vancouver Courier (CN BC) Copyright: 2007 Vancouver Courier Contact: http://www.vancourier.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/474 Author: Mike Howell, Vancouver Courier Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/rehab.htm (Treatment) FORMER COP BACKS MANDATORY DRUG TREATMENT Veteran Of Mean Streets Says Sex Workers Shrug At Harm Reduction Governments need to introduce mandatory drug treatment for addicted prostitutes or they will never get off the street and away from violent predators, says a retired Vancouver Police Department officer. Dave Dickson said the focus should shift from harm reduction services to mandatory drug treatment because that is the only way women in the sex trade will change their lives. Dickson is now on contract with the VPD as a liaison person to the sex trade. He served 25 years as a VPD officer before retiring in 2003. Most of his work as a cop related to the sex trade and the Downtown Eastside, where he was working Wednesday when the Courier contacted him. "Stop pouring millions of dollars into this harm reduction--and showing people how to live with their addiction--and actually start helping them get out of it," he said. "Until that happens, I don't think you're going to see any improvement down here." Sunday's conviction of Robert Willie Pickton on six counts of second degree murder of women from the Downtown Eastside was met with indifference, Dickson said. "It doesn't mean much [to the women]. Their lives are so miserable down here with the addictions and a whole bunch of other stuff. It hasn't changed at all down here for them. It's still violent." Dickson was the officer in 1997 who forwarded a report to his inspector on women going missing from the Downtown Eastside. Dickson was part of the VPD's review team on the file until the RCMP got involved. "I knew there was something going on, but we just couldn't say what," he said, adding that his report was based on contacts he made with various prostitute advocacy groups. "The bottom line is that [a string of murders] could happen again tomorrow. It doesn't matter how much we've learned from the Pickton case because there are still the issues of addiction and isolation for these women. These weren't women who phoned home every week. Their contact was minimal, so when they went missing, no one really noticed." Added Dickson: "The bottom line is that they get into a car with one person or more--strangers--and go to an unknown location for $20 or $50. So how do you fight that? How do you keep them safe?" Dickson called Mayor Sam Sullivan's plan in which doctors would prescribe legal drugs to prostitutes as "unrealistic." He said legal drugs continue the addiction cycle. "Anything any doctor prescribes is going to be next to worthless," he said. "It's going to be weak. If I'm a drug dealer and somebody's going to be handing out free drugs, you can bet I'm just going to make my stuff stronger and better." Kate Gibson, executive director of the WISH drop-in centre for street prostitutes in the Downtown Eastside, agreed the street scene for women remains violent. But thank goodness, Gibson said, that Pickton was convicted. News footage of his conviction was watched by many women at WISH on Sunday night, she added. "But it's not as if putting one person behind bars is going to change everything--unfortunately. It's just not." Gibson said she is still working to open a 24-hour drop-in centre for women. WISH, located at the First United Church on Gore Street, currently operates six days a week from 6 p.m. to 11 p.m. A year ago this month, city council approved leasing one floor of the VPD's police evidence warehouse at Alexander and Gore to WISH. The lease is for 10 years. Gibson said she expects to move to the bigger location in the early summer once the nonprofit organization receives a city permit. - --- MAP posted-by: Derek