POLICE TO ARREST ADDICTS WHO SHOOT UP IN PUBLIC

VPD Seeks To Persuade Addicts To Use Downtown Eastside Facility

VANCOUVER - City police are cracking down on flagrant drug use in the
Downtown Eastside in an effort to get drug users off the street and
into Vancouver's safe injection site.

Starting today, police will charge people who are injecting drugs in
front of or near Insite, the safe injection site on East Hastings
operated by Vancouver Coastal Health, Vancouver police department
spokesman Const. Howard Chow said.

"All they have to do is walk the few steps and go inside [to avoid
prosecution]," Chow said, adding the new campaign was spurred by
public health concerns and recent complaints about open drug use.

"All a person has to do is take a drive through the Downtown Eastside
at any given time and chances are you are going to see someone shoot
up," said Chow.

"You are going to see them shooting up in the laneways, you are going
to see them shooting up in alcoves, you are going to see them
shooting up right in the middle of the block in daytime."

Vancouver Coastal Health estimates it recovers 18,000 discarded
needles a month in the area, many within a four-block radius of
Insite, Chow said.

"That's a huge public safety concern for us," he said.

Police working the Downtown Eastside beat have been spreading the
word about the crackdown so no one should be caught by surprise, Chow said.

But the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users says the new tougher
stance is "uninformed."

VANDU estimates there are 15,000 drug injections every day in the
Downtown Eastside, but Insite can only handle about 600.

Arresting people for not using the site when it is already at
capacity doesn't make sense, VANDU program coordinator Ann Livingston said.

"If there is some logic [in the police crackdown] they better let us
know what it is because we're not grasping it," Livingston said.
"They're uninformed and they don't take the time to ask."

VANDU will be protesting the crackdown at noon today in the 100-block
of East Hastings, with placards and handouts to inform the public
that the real solution is opening more safe injection sites.

"We don't need this kind of harassment by the police," Livingston
said. "We need their support politically to get more safe sites."

Clay Adams, director of communications with Vancouver Coastal Health,
agreed that Insite is operating near capacity.

"It is certainly true that we are running at near capacity. The
question is how many people on the street are injecting because they
cannot get access to the site or they simply cannot be bothered going
to the site," Adams said.

"I think the view the police have is it's better to go to the site
and have us deal with the capacity issue than simply having people
injecting on the street, which is unsafe in health terms but also in
terms of the paraphernalia being used [and] left on the street."

Adams said Insite will deal with any increase in clientele as best it can.

"It may mean some people have to wait for a few minutes. But that's
the best we can do," he said.

If the police want to enforce the law with a view to getting people
into the site, that means forcing them into a safer practice, and
there's nothing wrong with that, Adams added.

Addict Crackdown:

The crackdown: Police will today begin arresting and charging people
who openly injecting drugs on the Downtown Eastside. Police say they
want drug users to go to the safe-injection site.

The facts: An estimated 15,000 drug injections are done daily on the
Downtown Eastside and 18,000 discarded needles are picked up every month.