Pubdate: Wed, 18 Jul 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) PROPOSED DRUG PROGRAM SHOULDN'T BE POLITICIZED, SAYS MAYOR'S NEW MAN CAST's Objectives Include Providing Legal Drugs To Up To 800 Addicts The new executive director of a non-profit society set up by Mayor Sam Sullivan to create a treatment program for drug addicts says he does not belong to any political parties. Richard Mulcaster also lacks the political connections of his predecessor Lois Johnson, who was B.C. co-chair for Health Minister Tony Clement's leadership bid for the federal Conservatives in 2003. But the 60-year-old former president and CEO of the Vancouver Foundation doesn't believe a decision on the mayor's proposed treatment program should be politicized. I'm not in it to support Mayor Sam Sullivan or the NPA or any politicians. I'm really in it for the community," Mulcaster told the Courier. Mulcaster took over for Johnson last week. Johnson agreed to stay on as executive director for only a few months. Mulcaster said he committed to four months, possibly longer. He now heads Inner Change, the non-profit society created to draft the drug treatment proposal. The society has named the proposal CAST, or Chronic Addiction Substitution Treatment. The program's objective is for doctors to prescribe legal drugs to up to 800 drug-addicted criminals and sex trade workers in the Downtown Eastside. The medication would serve as substitutes to illegal drugs such as crack cocaine and heroin, the two predominant drugs on the streets of the Downtown Eastside. Yesterday, the society's board was to review an executive summary of the proposal. Mulcaster is confident the final draft of the proposal will be sent to Health Canada by the end of August. The cost of the program, type of legal drugs and the number of doctors needed hasn't been finalized. Participation in the program will be voluntary. "I know the board [of directors] and none of us really want to do more harm [to the drug problem]. So for something like this, it's really important that it be done in a way that it's going to achieve good results and not just end up causing more grief." The mayor sent a letter to Clement last Friday regarding the city's drug policy. In the letter, Sullivan notes that CAST will require an exemption under the country's drug laws. Ultimately, Clement has the final say on the proposal. Sullivan attached a copy of CAST "goals and objectives" with the letter. He also pointed out that council recently supported a motion for the city's supervised injection site remain open for another three-and-a-half years. Mulcaster said the issue of drug addiction and the Downtown Eastside is not new to him. Before he retired from the Vancouver Foundation in 2005, the organization created a fund with money from donors for the city's Four Pillars drug strategy. Mulcaster is consulting several groups in the Downtown Eastside, including the Ray-Cam community centre, to create their own community foundations. "If the people in that community had a foundation that they would be on the board of and they could make decisions with respect to where the money went, which organizations would receive it and for what purpose, they would become equity players in the whole funding area," he said. - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom