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.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom