A police crackdown on injection drug users in the Downtown Eastside that began Nov. 28 hasn't resulted in one arrest, says the police commander in charge of the district. Insp. Bob Rolls said Thursday that police have been diligent in cracking down on drug users openly injecting in public, but so far haven't had to arrest anybody. "The information we're getting back is that drug users think we're going to charge them, so they're not doing it," Rolls said. [continues 592 words]
VANCOUVER - A police crackdown on injection drug users in the Downtown Eastside that began Nov. 28 hasn't resulted in a single arrest, says the police commander in charge of the district. Insp. Bob Rolls said Thursday that police have been cracking down on drug users openly injecting in public, but so far haven't had to arrest anybody. "The information we're getting back is that drug users think we're going to charge them, so they're not doing it," Rolls said. [continues 86 words]
Two Vancouver MPs say Conservative leader Stephen Harper's comments on drug addiction could mean the city's supervised injection site would be scrapped under a Conservative government. Vancouver-South Liberal MP Ujjal Dosanjh, who is also Canada's health minister, compared Harper's views on crime to those of U.S. President George Bush. "Here is a man who essentially looks at crime in the way Texans, particularly President Bush, would look at crime," Dosanjh told the Courier Monday. "It's sort of the Texan hang 'em high, Bush-style attitude to crime." [continues 496 words]
A call for staff at the city's supervised injection site to help drug users inject drugs at the facility is under review. Dr. Perry Kendall, the province's medical health officer, said the provincial steering committee that oversees Insite at 139 East Hastings in the Downtown Eastside is debating the idea. "There are liability issues if staff or volunteers did the injecting, there are probably professional issues if you were asking nurses to do the injecting of illicit drugs," said Kendall, the chair of the steering committee. [continues 608 words]
Mayor-elect Sam Sullivan says retiring Mayor Larry Campbell is the inspiration behind an RCMP probe of his well-publicized admissions that he supplied money to drug addicts more than three years ago. Sullivan said Campbell has admitted in the media that he wrote a letter several weeks ago to B.C. Solicitor-General John Les over concerns related to Sullivan supplying money to a drug addict and addicted prostitute. The letter was sent during the municipal election campaign in which Campbell endorsed Sullivan's opponent, Jim Green of Vision Vancouver. Sullivan was elected Nov. 19. [continues 563 words]
On Monday, Vancouver police will begin arresting injection drug users who shoot up in public near the city's supervised injection in the Downtown Eastside. In a reversal of a longstanding police practice not to arrest addicts for possession, the department says it's taking action because some addicts continue to inject drugs near Insite at 139 East Hastings. "It's really frustrating to see that supervised injection site there and drug users not using it," said Insp. Bob Rolls, police commander for the Downtown Eastside. "Our goal here is to target the users who are creating street disorder, who are in close distance to the supervised injection site and who are refusing to use that facility." [continues 656 words]
In B.C. 169 people are allowed to grow and possess marijuana for medicinal purposes and an additional 22 people get their pot from licensed growers, according to Health Canada. But Health Canada won't release the number of licensed growers in Vancouver because it wants to protect their privacy and guard them from becoming targets of organized crime, said Christopher Williams, a spokesman for Health Canada. "Obviously, in Vancouver it's not as big a deal [because of the population], but if it's Charlottetown or Winnipeg, then the numbers start getting smaller and it's a lot easier to tell who might have a medical issue or whatever," said Williams in releasing the latest statistics on licensed grow-ops to the Courier. [continues 666 words]
VANCOUVER - In B.C. 169 people are allowed to grow and possess marijuana for medicinal purposes and an additional 22 people get their pot from licensed growers, according to Health Canada. But Health Canada won't release the number of licensed growers in Vancouver because it wants to protect their privacy and guard them from becoming targets of organized crime, said Christopher Williams, a spokesman for Health Canada. "Obviously, in Vancouver it's not as big a deal [because of the population], but if it's Charlottetown or Winnipeg, then the numbers start getting smaller and it's a lot easier to tell who might have a medical issue or whatever," said Williams in releasing the latest statistics on licensed grow-ops. [continues 53 words]
COPE says he did, Don Lee says he didn't. And your version of the truth might depend on which language you speak. The left-leaning party issued a press release Sunday saying Lee, an NPA school board candidate, called for the city's Four Pillar drug strategy to be scrapped. The release said Lee made the comment Sunday at an all-candidates' meeting organized by the Strathcona Property Owners' and Tenants' Association. "This [the Four Pillars plan] is an experiment, and it's not working. So we should scrap it," is the quote COPE attributed to Lee, an NPA city councillor from 1996 to 2002. [continues 458 words]
The COPE-dominated council has "dropped the ball" in its goal to eliminate the open drug market in the Downtown Eastside, says NPA mayoral candidate Sam Sullivan. Sullivan made the comment at an Oct. 26 debate held in the Courier newsroom with Vision Vancouver mayoral candidate Jim Green. "[The COPE-dominated council] has squandered a huge opportunity, an incredible mandate, a big majority that was given to them by the citizens to accomplish their promise of reducing the dysfunction and the open drug market on the Downtown Eastside and they've failed to do so," Sullivan said. [continues 460 words]
The Downtown Eastside and adjoining lower East Side have seen the most significant drop in crime in the city over the last two years, says the district's police commander. Property crime plummeted by 20 per cent and violent crime by 12 per cent to make for a safer quadrant of the city once plagued by violence and thefts, said Vancouver Police Insp. Bob Rolls. That's the good news. The bad news is police believe the population of drug addicts increased in the past few years. So have the number of mentally ill people and those without a home, Rolls said. [continues 501 words]
"If we do our work well, we should be able to eliminate the open drug market on the Downtown Eastside by the next election." That ambitious statement came from Mayor Larry Campbell in his inauguration speech in December 2002. The "next election" Campbell was referring to is Nov. 19, the one that will exclude his name on the ballot because he is retiring and accepted a seat in the Senate. To gauge whether Campbell and his city councillors did their "work well," the Courier interviewed 30 people last month who live or work in the Downtown Eastside. [continues 2757 words]
At least three times in his life, NPA mayoral candidate Sam Sullivan has given money to drug addicts to help them buy drugs to "manage" their illnesses. The 12-year councillor said he did it to also learn more about drug addiction in the city. "I believe for some people with addictions, it is a sickness which you have to fix," said Sullivan, who is battling Vision Vancouver's Jim Green to replace Larry Campbell as mayor. "For others, it's a disability which is a long-term problem that you manage." [continues 685 words]
A former independent candidate who campaigned in the 2002 municipal election against supervised injection sites has joined the pro-injection site Vision Vancouver slate for this fall's campaign. George Chow, president of the Chinese Benevolent Association of Vancouver, reversed his stance on injection sites after learning the site at 139 East Hastings is working. "I wished it would work, and I think it's working for what it's intended for, which is to reduce transmission of disease and give people a place to inject safely," Chow said. [continues 506 words]
If Jim Green becomes the city's next mayor, he will consider pushing for another supervised injection site to complement the existing two-year-old site in the Downtown Eastside. Green said evaluations of Insite at 139 East Hastings indicate the facility has reduced the number of addicts shooting up in public, reduced needle sharing and saved lives. "It's really showed its worth," said Green, a city councillor running for mayor under the Vision Vancouver banner. "When we had this epidemic of killer heroin on the street [last month], you had the police on the radio and everywhere telling any users to go to the safe injection site to save their lives." [continues 520 words]
Police believe a burglary to a Downtown Eastside pharmacy that resulted in the theft of a large quantity of methadone is related to the city's nine latest drug overdose deaths. Vancouver police Const. Howard Chow said the burglary occurred on the morning of Aug. 12. The first death occurred Aug. 19 and nine were dead by Monday. "People are buying heroin and thinking it's heroin, but it's actually being cut with methadone," Chow said. "So they would have no way of determining the quantity or the concentration of what they're injecting." [continues 401 words]
All drugs seized by Vancouver police will be tested immediately to help investigators determine who is selling what is believed to be a lethal batch of heroin responsible for seven overdose deaths since Aug. 19. An analysis of a drug normally takes weeks or months, but police are working with the Vancouver Coastal Health Authority to have drugs tested within a day. Insp. Bob Rolls, police commander of the Downtown Eastside and eastern portion of the city, said his officers have been ordered to seize drugs wherever and whenever possible. [continues 648 words]
The city granted business licences to at least 30 specialized garden stores without knowing they are allegedly selling equipment strictly to set up marijuana growing operations. It wasn't until city inspectors and police learned of the stores' link to the marijuana industry that the city's business licence division decided it must take action, said Barb Windsor, the city's deputy chief licensing inspector. "We've been licensing them and not realizing what these stores were doing," Windsor said. She believes a bylaw is needed to prohibit the businesses from operating. The stores are selling timing boards, electrical equipment, fertilizer and venting materials. [continues 498 words]
A city report on Vancouver's drug problem recommends municipalities with casinos contribute some of their gaming profits to establish a centre to prevent drug use and to tackle problem gambling. The creation of the Municipal Prevention Institute is the first recommendation in a lengthy report written by Donald MacPherson, the city's drug policy coordinator. Though a recommendation regulating the sale of marijuana garnered national headlines when the report was released last Wednesday, MacPherson sees the proposed institute as an equally important step to curtailing drug use. [continues 475 words]
The City is expected to spend $500,000 over the next two years to help fund an international drug conference scheduled for Vancouver in April 2006. In a report to go before council Tuesday, drug policy coordinator Donald MacPherson writes that the $500,000 will help organizers-the Harm Reduction 2006 Society-reach the $1.9 million budget. At least $600,000 will be raised from conference registrations, and the remaining $1.3 million will be sought from all three levels of government and corporations. [continues 137 words]
The city's drug policy coordinator wants a study done to determine where in Vancouver people are dying of drug overdoses to measure the effectiveness of the safe injection site. Donald MacPherson said the city has requested the information from the B.C. Coroners Service but has been unable to attain it because of the research required. The Coroners Service doesn't record the information on an electronic database, meaning collection of those details would require a person to read through each overdose death file. [continues 389 words]
The owner of a Downtown Eastside hotel that has been the scene of three homicides in less than three months plans to evict his tenants and spend $500,000 in renovations. Sam Kim of the New Wing's Hotel at 143 Dunlevy St. admitted Wednesday he must clean up his hotel and run a better operation to avoid further violence inside the building. "I'm feeling very sad about what happened," Kim told the Courier. Kim is expected to submit architectural drawings of the proposed renovations to city hall within the next week. The drawings are part of his application for a building permit. [continues 664 words]
Viewers who tuned in to the national news on Jan. 24 witnessed disturbing images of thieves beating two elderly men in a Downtown Eastside alley. One man was knocked senseless by a forearm smash to the head, leaving him to fall hard to the ground. The other man was stumbling and attempting to stop blood from spurting over his face and clothes. The thieves quickly picked through their victims' pockets, looking for cash and valuables. Unfortunately, there was no audio to the amateur footage captured by the person who filmed the violence. [continues 3417 words]
It Was A Week To Remember For Chris Taulu. The community policing advocate received a B.C. Achievement Foundation award Tuesday and learned Thursday that city council will provide more funding for policing centres. "It was a good week, I felt really good," said the 67-year-old coordinator of the Collingwood community policing centre. The award recognized her 11 years of work with the policing centre, where she coordinates crime prevention programs and preaches the dangers of marijuana growing operations. [continues 439 words]
A buzz of activity surrounds 64-year-old Sam Kim as he stands in his dimly lit office at the New Wing's hotel in the Downtown Eastside. Tenants want to borrow the phone, use his keys to get into a room or ask him to press the buzzer to let a friend in the front door-it's non-stop in the half hour visit by the Courier Thursday morning. Kim has owned the 50-room hotel at Dunlevy and Powell streets for 17 years. And, for the most part, he has run what he considers a functional operation. [continues 769 words]
In just 45 minutes Tuesday, two workers from an East Side aboriginal centre picked up 139 spent syringes within a two-block radius of their building. Normally, Jacqualene Worrall and Kelly Donan of the Aboriginal Mother Centre Society at Wall and Dundas streets collect about 40 syringes a day in a sweep of the neighbourhood. "We couldn't believe it," said Donan, an outreach worker who has picked up syringes for almost two years. "It's getting a lot worse around here, and people are getting really mad about this." [continues 883 words]
The Conservative Party justice critic Vic Toews wants two-year minimum jail sentences for people caught growing marijuana to deter others from entering B.C.'s billion-dollar industry. Toews told the Courier in a telephone interview last week from Toronto that people in the Lower Mainland tell him they're fed up with pot growers receiving fines and brief jail terms. "A two-year minimum sentence would not violate the Constitution in terms of cruel and unusual punishment," said Toews, Manitoba's attorney general from 1997 to 1999. "I don't see any opposition coming from ordinary homeowners who are very concerned about this problem." [continues 496 words]
In just six months, the city has issued almost $157,000 in penalties to landlords whose houses and buildings contained marijuana growing operations. But only two of the property owners have complained. Carlene Robbins, manager of the city's bylaw administration branch, said the police Growbusters unit busted 92 drug operations since June, which led to each landlord receiving a $1,700 penalty. "We've had two complaints, including one person at the counter [at city hall] who was kind of going ballistic about this whole idea, but other than that, I haven't heard anything," Robbins said. "I'm not sure what to read into that. In some cases, if they were involved with the grow-op, then they're not saying anything. If they were innocent, I'm not sure why more people aren't complaining?" [continues 458 words]
The thin man in the Harry Potter-like glasses only has to walk out on to East Hastings to be reminded of who he is and what he has become-the country's most famous junkie. "That's quite a handle, I know. See Mom, I told you I'd become something," says 49-year-old Dean Wilson, who began shooting heroin in Toronto when he was 12 years old. As he enters a coffee shop at the corner of Columbia and Hastings, he is greeted by people who know him from his crusade to give drug addicts a voice and better services in the neighbourhood. [continues 869 words]
The man in his 30s curled up in the shadows of a parking lot under the Burrard Street Bridge confides that he's a drug addict who collects bottles to pay for food and his habit. The long-haired 53-year-old woman pushing a buggy full of junk outside the McDonald's on Granville Street keeps her distance from the foul-mouthed, pot-smoking young men on the sidewalk. The bearded man with the Newfoundland accent standing outside a closed convenience store on Bute Street jokes with the hardscrabble lot lying on the sidewalk. [continues 2457 words]
Mayor Larry Campbell says he wants the city to hire 50 more police officers and have the Vancouver Coastal Health Authority operate the city's supervised injection site 24 hours a day. Those are two priorities of the former RCMP drug squad member and coroner as he heads into the last 10 months of his three-year term as mayor of Vancouver. The municipal election is in November. "We should be looking at [hiring] 50 officers every year for the next five years," Campbell told the Courier. [continues 715 words]
Another day at the Dundas Hotel, another seizure of drugs and money. Vancouver police arrested two men and seized $10,000 in drugs and money from a suite in the rooming house at 2167 Dundas St., near Templeton. Police entered the rooming house at noon Dec. 29, which triggered the front desk clerk to use a two-way radio to alert the drug dealers, police said. Police ran up the stairs to a third-floor suite, where they arrested a man who was allegedly in possession of a large quantity of drugs and money. A 31-year-old man and the 46-year-old desk clerk are facing drug-related charges. [continues 246 words]
Hire more police, create better services for the homeless and the addicted and stop kicking people off welfare. That's how to prevent some of the drug dealing and break-ins from continuing in the Bute and Davie neighbourhood, says the manager of Hamburger Mary's. George Adams has worked for the popular West End diner for 10 years and has noticed an increase both in crime and drug activity on the street. The diner's bathroom has also been used by addicts to inject drugs, he said. [continues 687 words]
Vancouver's drug court is marking its third anniversary with two more graduations this week from a treatment program that has seen 36 recovering addicts successfully complete the program. The most recent, a 31-year-old man, graduated yesterday and a 21-year-old woman will leave the program tomorrow, says David MacIntyre, director of the treatment program for drug court. "When you look at these people, the fact that they're not out there committing crimes, it's significant," MacIntyre said. [continues 503 words]
An award-winning program at city community centres that pairs young immigrants with Canadian youth to prevent them from falling into crime and drugs is in jeopardy. The provincial government has decided not to fund $280,000 for the Buddy Program, which helps 1,000 kids at five centres, including the Ray-Cam Community Centre on East Hastings. "We didn't believe it," said Steve Bouchard, president of the Ray-Cam board, about the letter from the Ministry of Community, Aboriginal and Women's Services Ray-Cam received two weeks ago. [continues 430 words]
The city's 14-month-old supervised injection site on East Hastings has not reduced drug use or harm from drugs the way bureaucrats and politicians said it would, says the president of the Vancouver Police Union. Tom Stamatakis said the increase in overdose deaths this year points to an increasing problem with drug use in the city and the need to focus more on drug enforcement, education and treatment. The Courier reported last week that 44 people died of drug overdoses from January to September, an increase from the 41 who died in the same period in 2003. [continues 487 words]
Despite the opening of North America's first legal injection site in the Downtown Eastside in September 2003, three more Vancouverites died of drug overdoses from January to September this year compared to the same period in 2003. Preliminary statistics from the B.C. Coroners Service reveal that 44 people died of a drug overdose from January to September-an increase from the 41 who died in the same period in 2003. Though the increase is marginal, and considerably lower than the hundreds who died of overdoses in the mid-1990s, the number of deaths still concerns Donald Macpherson, the city's drug policy coordinator. [continues 501 words]
Despite opposition from the Vancouver Police Department, Mayor Larry Campbell supports opening a room inside the city's legal injection site for addicts to smoke rock cocaine. Campbell told the Courier Wednesday he will speak to Health Canada next month about getting the appropriate exemption to open a safe inhalation room. "I'm completely for it," said Campbell, who is chair of the police board. "We've already got the room there, it's set up, how much more does it take?" [continues 746 words]
Injection drug use is a problem in Edmonton, but the city is not prepared to open a supervised injection site like Vancouver, says a visiting Edmonton police officer. Supt. Thomas Grue, who is in Vancouver this week as part of the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police conference, said Vancouver's unprecedented implementation of an injection site has inspired Edmonton community groups to pressure police and politicians for a site in the city. "Different parts of the community support a safe injection site, but I would suggest to you that the predominant feeling in the community is that they're against it because it doesn't attend to their concerns about the crime that results from drug addiction," said Grue, the Edmonton Police Service's commander of that city's downtown core. [continues 428 words]
Police have cracked another international million-dollar marijuana smuggling ring based in Vancouver-the second in two years. Eight Vancouver residents with ties to Vietnamese gangs are facing several drug charges in connection with the ring that involved the use of tractor-trailers. The arrests occurred last Wednesday, concluding a three month investigation by Vancouver police, RCMP and Customs agents from both sides of the border. It follows a similar bust two years ago, where police seized more than $1 million and found evidence in an East Side house that marijuana was being smuggled across the border. [continues 541 words]
The city has handed out almost $30,000 in penalties to landlords whose houses contained marijuana growing operations-and not one of the property owners has complained. Carlene Robbins, manager of the city's bylaw administration branch, said the $1,700 penalty issued to each landlord is a result of a new law to help the city recoup costs of busting a grow-op. "I'm actually quite surprised that I've had no negative reaction to it yet," said Robbins, noting the penalty is automatically added to a landlord's tax notice. "I really thought we would start getting people complaining. People are either ignoring the letter we sent or won't really realize [the penalty] until they get their tax notices that's going to show an additional charge on there. Then maybe they'll flip." [continues 517 words]
The police commander for the Downtown Eastside questions the need for a legal "safe inhalation site" for smokers of rock cocaine. Insp. Bob Rolls said the request from the newly-formed Rock Users Group isn't based on credible research that proves smoking crack in a government-approved site would benefit addicts. "Right now, what it would be is moving criminal activity indoors and I would be opposed to that," Rolls said. "People end up going into cocaine psychosis, and they end up being very violent and dangerous and unpredictable, and to take that indoors and concentrate it in one room, that's a concern." [continues 570 words]
An advocate for drug users says she's heard from addicts that some police officers are continuing to attend drug overdose calls, despite a new policy to discontinue the practice. Ann Livingston, project coordinator for the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users (VANDU), said addicts are still afraid to call 911 if someone overdoses because they don't want to be hassled or taken to jail by police. "When you get drug users together, they'll say things like this, 'Don't just call 911, if you can revive the guy, do it, because he might have warrants for his arrest.' That's crazy, but I know why they're doing it." [continues 575 words]
The Vancouver Police Board is expected to pass a new policy today that will see police only respond to drug overdoses if they're fatal, or public safety is at risk. Currently, police respond to about 3,800 calls a year where they assist paramedics, the majority of which are drug-related, said Insp. Ken Frail, who will present the only policy of its kind in Canada to the police board. "What value do we add when we attend a medical emergency call? If it's non-fatal and the drugs have been consumed, do we provide any benefit to the public in attending? And I would say, 'No we don't.' [continues 375 words]
An undercover Vancouver police officer sitting inside the American Hotel on Main Street, near the Main Street SkyTrain station, said he watched stolen goods sold openly at a table of a dozen people. The officer's report was part of a three-month probe into drug dealing and other illegal activity at hotels, pawn shops and grocery stores in the Downtown Eastside. The probe included the American, which despite being the subject of previous drug busts, continues to operate as a business. [continues 745 words]
A few years ago, longtime Downtown Eastside cop Ken Frail thought he'd reached the burnout point. He was working in Canada's poorest postal code, where drug dealing and street crime are rampant. "I asked for a transfer," said the 53-year-old Frail. "But it was probably six weeks after that, that a lump developed on my throat and I realized I had lymphoma." The diagnosis rocked him and his family, but through a series of treatments, Frail is confident the tumour is gone. A visit to his doctor last week confirmed his optimistic outlook. It's not a setback he likes to dwell on, only saying "last year was a hard year for me." [continues 607 words]
As Devon MacFarlane sees it, drug addicts and alcoholics have been living around Commercial Drive as long as the community has been there. So rather than pit residents against addicts, MacFarlane organized a community forum for Thursday to bring both sides together to create a harmonious neighbourhood. "It's about trying to break down the 'us versus them' scenario so that we're all in this together," said MacFarlane, a community worker with the North Health Office of the Vancouver Coastal Health Authority at Commercial Drive and East 1st Avenue. "Basically, we're looking at how do we make the best neighbourhood possible." [continues 475 words]
Every Tuesday morning for the past two months, students and staff of a Commercial Drive hairdressing school have begun their day with shovels and rakes, not scissors and shampoo. The 50 or so women and men use tools, along with gloves and tongs, to pick up used needles, condoms and other garbage on the street and in the alleys. "Someone had to do something," said Beth Crescent, principal and co-owner of Joji's Hair School, near the corner of Napier and Commercial. "If you see ugly, you're going to feel ugly. If you see filth, you're going to feel filthy. But if you see beautiful, well, that's beautiful." [continues 668 words]
Another Marijuana Grow-Op Bust, Another Victory For The City's Anti-Grow-Op Granny. Sixty-seven-year-old Chris Taulu spent Wednesday afternoon in front of a house in the 6300 block of Bruce Street on the East Side where police busted another grow-op. The day before, she was at a press conference telling reporters about the evils of grow-ops and how hundreds of them are in homes with children, even though mold, chemicals and dangerous electrical equipment are commonplace in such operations. [continues 641 words]
A derelict strip of Triumph Street where prostitutes ply their trade and crack addicts huddle in alcoves has become grow-op central in the city. Since last June, Vancouver police have seized 6,500 marijuana plants in three buildings located in the two blocks of Triumph Street between the north ends of Semlin Drive and Victoria Drive. The latest haul occurred Saturday, at about 4:30 p.m., when police raided a small office building at 1924 Triumph St. and discovered 2,000 plants, worth about $1.7 million. [continues 487 words]
