The shame of Vancouver's Downtown Eastside continually reinforces the critical need for new addiction recovery services throughout the Lower Mainland and across our province. In particular, services that help women with addictions recover in a safe, supportive facility in their own community.

The City of Richmond is currently reviewing one such proposal, prepared by Turning Point Recovery Society -- a proposal under attack by a Richmond opposition with the angry name NIABY ("not in anyone's backyard").

NIABY refuses to acknowledge the urgent need for recovery services in Richmond and is waging a misinformation campaign against Turning Point and all persons afflicted with the disease of addiction.

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Drug-Addicted Prostitute Turned Her Life Around Behind Bars

Many years ago I spent several days hanging out with a heroin addict/prostitute in a notorious neighbourhood of Toronto.

The newspaper I was working for at the time was doing a multi-day series on various drugs plaguing the city and I was assigned to cover heroin -- how its increasing potency and decreasing price was leading to a spike in not just new users, but also overdose deaths.

That's how I came to know Sam, whom I renamed Jackie for the articles. Like most of the other prostitutes I have interviewed over the years, Sam was extremely open. As a result, she and her "man" Danny gave me total access to their lives. Every morning I would climb up the fire escape of the brick walkup they lived in, crawl through their living room window and wait for them to wake up to observe their heroin-ruled existence.

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Question Criteria Used To Investigate

The B.C. Association of Social Workers is calling on the province to show how it deals with children taken from marijuana grow operations.

The appeal follows the Dec. 11 removal of three children under the age of 12 from an Abbotsford grow-op that had dangerously high levels of carbon monoxide.

The children were put into the care of the Ministry of Children and Family Development.

Children were also found in a Richmond home in August after police recovered more than 1,100 plants in the home.

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VICTORIA - It's not just drunk drivers that Vancouver Island police say they've been catching this holiday season. Increasingly, people behind the wheel are high on some sort of drug as well.

So much so that police in Saanich weren't surprised to see a man recently drive to a roadblock with a joint hanging out of his mouth. He'd tried to finish it before he reached the officers, but apparently didn't make it in time.

The night the man and his unfinished marijuana cigarette rolled through the roadblock, Dec. 18, police issued the same number of 24-hour licence suspensions for drivers high on drugs as they did for drivers drunk on alcohol.

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Many years ago in Toronto, the newspaper I was working for at the time undertook a multi-day series on various drugs plaguing the city and I was assigned to cover heroin.

That's how I came to know Sam, a prostitute and addict whom I renamed Jackie for the articles. Sam was extremely open and she and her "man" Danny gave me total access to their lives.

Sam's life was horrific -- a total waste and a terrible worry for me. When possible from my obscured vantage point, I would write down licence plate numbers of the cars she would jump into and always felt an intense sense of relief when she would return to her corner, something she would do time and again until she raised enough money to feed her and Danny's $600-a-day heroin habit. Her life, as she said, was a vicious circle of turning tricks to get a fix and needing a fix to turn the tricks.

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Re: "Gangland recruits," Dec. 13-20

Being a young minority male, or "at-risk youth", I consider myself fairly experienced in the world of crime here in Vancouver. I grew up on the West Side as well as the West End, seeing and participating in a lot of the things mentioned in your article.

Gang activity is everywhere, and youths of all social classes and neighbourhoods are involved. The only difference between white and Persian crime rings as compared to their South Asian counterparts is that the South Asians tend to be more overt and violent. The motives of a South Asian youth-gang member are more likely to be money-meaning that they, astonishingly, are not very excited about the prospect of being a telemarketer or fast-food worker their whole life.

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Owner Of Pete's Open Kitchen Says He's Ready To Pack Up And Leave

OSHAWA -- Peter Captsis is tired.

Tired of finding pills and syringes on the bathroom floor, tired of breaking up fights, tired of listening to foul language float over the tables in his restaurant.

For the past two years, he has been trying to make Pete's Open Kitchen a downtown Oshawa success story but says the methadone clinic next door is making that all but impossible.

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Re: "Drug laws draconian," Dec. 13-19

Protest organizer Ted Smith hit some bull's-eyes in your article, but I disagree with the label used to describe Canada's Conservatives as the "moral minority."

There is nothing "moral" about caging responsible adults for using the relatively safe God-given plant cannabis (kaneh bosm/ marijuana). In fact, one reason to stop caging humans for using cannabis that doesn't get mentioned is because it is biblically correct since Christ God Our Father, the Ecologician, indicates He created all the seed-bearing plants-saying they are all good-on literally the very first page. The only biblical restriction placed on cannabis is that it is to be accepted with thankfulness (see 1 Timothy 4:1-5).

Those with good "morals" do not cage people for using what God says is good.

Stan White, Dillon, Colorado

[end]

Courtenay is one of four Vancouver Island communities that will offer crack pipe distribution programs in the near future.

Needle exchange sites in Courtenay, Campbell River, Nanaimo and Victoria will offer the programs.

For the first time, the Ministry of Health's harm-reduction supply and services program will fund crack-pipe components, such as plastic mouthpieces and filters.

The BC Harm Reduction Supply Services Policy has approved various tools for harm reduction, including needles, explained Jocelyn Stanton, the Vancouver Island Health Authority's communications adviser.

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Interior Health is looking into the possibility of distributing "crack kits" to help prevent the spread of disease.

But it could be some time yet before people on the streets get them.

The kits, supplied by the provincial government through the Harm Reduction Supply Services Committee, are really just pieces of rubber tubing which go on the end of crack pipes, that drug users routinely share.

The committee, which includes representatives from each of the province's health authorities, as well as the ministry of health, decided this fall to make the kits available to any health authority that wants them.

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Brawl Sends Cash Spraying Across Parking Lot, Say Witnesses

It was a green Christmas for some last minute shoppers in Prince George.

In an incident seen more in Hollywood films than real life, a spray of cash went blowing across the Pine Centre Mall parking lot and some blood was spilled after a suspected drug altercation went bad on the afternoon of Christmas Eve.

When police arrived they made almost a dozen arrests, spoke to other persons of interest, took one to hospital suffering from a stab wound to the belly, and heard from witnesses about a blizzard of cash. All three of the city's established organized crime gangs were in the vicinity at the time.

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Crystal meth has yet to establish a toe-hold in Fredericton, says Fredericton police Chief Barry MacKnight.

But the force is ready just in case.

"Crystal meth -- we're not seeing it," MacKnight said. "Crystal meth seems to have crested to a large degree in Ontario and, I think, they see some in Quebec. We have the odd little pockets here and there."

The bitter-tasting, synthetically produced crystalline powder, or "meth," can be taken through the nose, injected, smoked or dissolved in a glass of water. It's designed to stimulate the heart, increase breathing and keep the user awake.

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The provincial electricity provider is powering up a program to eliminate grow-ops.

B.C. Hydro is partnering with Crime Stoppers in establishing a tip line to report people who may be stealing electricity, a common activity of people with indoor marijuana plantations.

Hydro's energy diversion investigators can now receive addresses of suspected grow-ops reported to the Crime Stoppers tip line. Where evidence of theft is found, B.C. Hydro lays complaints with law enforcement agencies, which in turn obtain search warrants and recommend charging suspects.

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I had the distinct pleasure of watching council give approval to the Spirit Bear Centre Society proposal for a detox/recovery facility for female youth.

Personal experience has taught me that detox/treatment/recovery for youth is non-existent in this area.

The citizens of the neighbourhood should not feel as though they have been singled out.

The harsh, sad reality is that with the number of issues and thus facilities needed to address and reduce Abbotsford's social problems, all neighbourhoods in the city will be host to facilities.

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Documentary Made To Give Meth Addicts Hope

Two years ago, the Times told readers the story of Carla Meyer, a young woman from Chilliwack battling to beat crystal meth addiction and get on with her life.

Now her story is reaching a wider audience. She is one of the main subjects of a new documentary called Letter to Myself.

The film's director Beth Miller completed it this fall after working on the film for the last year or two. It focusses on Carla and another young woman named Kim taking part in a recovery program in the Vancouver area.

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Facility Needed, Says Councillor

The Abbotsford treatment and detox centre couldn't come at a better time, says Abbotsford Coun. John Smith.

"It is so important that there are properly run places that will help these women get off drugs and get off the street, so they can have some stability in their lives," said Smith.

His comments come after the council approved a new 10-bed centre, aimed at females 13 to 19 years old, last Monday.

The application for the centre was put forward by the Spirit Bear Society, a group that was founded to help young women with a dependency on drugs and alcohol. The group also aims to help them deal with the impact of physical and sexual abuse.

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Editor:

It is unbelievable that any medical health officer for the Vancouver Island Health Authority would condone and encourage crack pipe use throughout Vancouver Island and at needle exchanges, which would include Victoria, Nanaimo, Campbell River and Courtenay, plus mobile needle exchange units running in most Island communities.

Now there are going to be attachments supplied to these pipes in the new year to cut down the spread of Hepatitis C infections --more of taxpayers' dollars going down the sink, when an alternative could be introduced.

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An amazingly prescient inquiry Judge Le Dain headed into the non-medical use of drugs called for the decriminalization of the simple possession of marijuana -- in 1973.

Gerald Le Dain, who died last week at 83, was only 44 years old when he was handed the assignment that would make him an improbable counter-culture icon.

Mr. Le Dain was already an accomplished legal scholar and would later serve on Canada's highest courts. But his name will forever be linked to the job he undertook at the behest of the federal government on that May day in 1969.

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Access to free, clean crack pipes in Ottawa will continue next year despite the city's opposition to the controversial program.

Jack McCarthy, director of the Somerset West Community Health Centre, confirmed Friday in a conversation with a Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care spokesman that the province will fund the program without city involvement.

"The minister is committed to funding this program," Mr. McCarthy said, adding he is pleased with the news.

The province will provide $287,000 to run the crack pipe program in 2008. The money will go toward paying for two outreach workers, transportation and supplies. Mr. McCarthy said he hopes the funding will be made permanent.

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Cat-310, From Toronto's Cannasat Therapeutics, Is Medical Marijuana Sans 'Buzz'

They've heard all the jokes, and then some.

No, Cheech and Chong aren't on the payroll. Neither is the Weed Man. They don't have free samples, or the munchies. And their office Christmas party wasn't any wilder than yours was.

But as a small pharmaceutical firm working on a medicinal product derived from the same plant that's, um, high on the radar for recreational purposes, some ribbing is to be expected.

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