Pubdate: Wed, 04 Jul 2007
Source: Salmon Arm Observer (CN BC)
Copyright: 2007 Salmon Arm Observer
Contact:  http://www.saobserver.net/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1407
Author: Tom Fletcher
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?137 (Needle Exchange)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?142 (Safe Injecting Rooms)

SUMMER IN THE CITY, NOT SO PRETTY

VICTORIA -- The "honour system" has finally been abandoned on the 
Greater Vancouver buses. The establishment of "fare paid zones" 
beyond the driver's seat and at least the theoretical appearance of 
someone to check tickets is an effort to stem the problem of people 
refusing to pay and assaulting drivers who remind them the ride isn't 
quite free.

It seems that once a city reaches a certain size, it doesn't have 
enough honour left for honour systems. Surveys indicated that Ottawa 
doesn't yet have bus anarchy, but Toronto does. A relieved Vancouver 
bus driver interviewed on TV said being spit on wasn't the worst of 
it. He's also been punched, kicked and pulled from his seat while the 
bus was moving.

Here in Victoria the Canada Day fireworks have been known for a 
finale involving drunken brawls on the upper deck of those 
London-style buses. (No reports yet of fights breaking out in 
horse-drawn carriages or rickshaws, but with international soccer 
matches in town I'm not ruling it out.) Victoria's just reaching the 
critical mass where such nighttime public events are surrendered and 
the downtown streets given over to purveyors of the nightly buffet of 
blood, pee and pavement pizza.

Then there is the illegal drug problem. Victoria's mayor still 
believes in something called a "safe injection site," as the city 
looks for a new home for its blight of a "needle exchange program." 
Nanaimo's pilot project to hand out crack pipes has sputtered out 
like a spent Bic lighter, due to threats from ungrateful recipients.

Vancouver Mayor Sam Sullivan is offering a bit of fresh air on the 
drug problems that plague his city. He's moving on from the "safe 
injection" and "needle exchange" stopgaps that promote continued 
abuse. Give the hardcore addicts legal pills that approximate the ups 
and downs of cocaine and heroin, he suggests, and at least they have 
a hope of getting off the mean streets. But the most sensible 
strategy is coming from Vancouver-Burrard MLA Lorne Mayencourt, who 
earlier pioneered the radical notion that pedestrians, like bus 
drivers, shouldn't have to put up with being threatened or assaulted. 
He has been touring the province to promote the model of the San 
Patrignano treatment community in Italy, a remote self-contained 
rural facility where people can check in and stay for three to five 
years, drug-free and working at a real job. It has more than 2,000 
people in voluntary attendance, and claims a 75 per cent success rate.

Mayencourt has identified a preferred location, a former radar 
station called Baldy Hughes located 30 km southwest of Prince George. 
It offers a dormitory, mobile home pads, welding and woodworking 
shops, a bowling alley, curling rink and gym.

Prince George already has its share of big-city problems, being a 
service centre for the medical, social and penal needs of B.C.'s 
north. But it too could benefit from this refreshing approach to the 
low-level crime, panhandling and prostitution that is intertwined 
with drugs in urban centres.

There are other remote locations around the province that could take 
a similar approach. It seems like a better idea than waiting for 
Vancouver or Victoria to develop something that actually has a chance 
of working.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom