REGION'S DRUG STRATEGY FIZZLES

In September, 1999, the South Fraser Health Region (SFHR) released a
discussion paper calling for action on the area's drug problems.

Surveys had shown local youths had easy access to crack and heroin. They
estimated the SFHR was home to about 2,300 injection drug users, not
counting those who had migrated to downtown Vancouver, as many do.

And the paper said the crime and health woes that result would not go away
without a coordinated strategy attacking the problem from several key angles.

"It's time we go beyond studying the issue," one official said at the time.

Sixteen months later, even the studies have stopped.

The health region, absorbed by its wide range of responsibilities -
including running the area's heavily burdened hospitals - has no current
plans for a follow-up report or plan for action.

"Personally I feel that's the piece that's missing," said Dr. Roland
Guaspirini, the SFHR's medical health officer. "It's a matter of someone
stepping up to the plate and saying they'll see this through.

"It's disappointing. It's frustrating."

The major roadblock, Guaspirini said, is the large and uncoordinated number
of government services and agencies that have some degree of responsibility
in the area of drug abuse.

The most recent study of the suburban drug-use issue also reached that
conclusion.

Conducted on a Lower Mainland-wide basis and completed in September, it
said updated drug-use statistics were unreliable, but that the numbers are
"dangerously large and the population of injection drug users is by no
means limited to the city of Vancouver."

Like the SFHR discussion paper, it bemoaned the lack of coordination among
various branches of government, and called for change. But the organization
that produced this latest study, the Lower Mainland Municipal Association,
is a low-profile resource and advocacy group for city governments that has
little influence, and no authority for implementing an action plan.

"There's a lot of material out there," Guaspirini said of the numerous
studies. "It wouldn't take much to pull it all together."

That's exactly what has happened in the city of Vancouver.

Mayor Philip Owen has led a drive to develop a new drug strategy for the
city, which has some of the worst drug problems in Canada, especially on
the Downtown Eastside.

Vancouver has produced a strategy that rests on the so-called four-pillar
approach: prevention, treatment, law enforcement and harm reduction, the
latter comprising such measures as government-run safe injection sites for
addicts.

The strategy has been endorsed in principle by the B.C. and federal
governments, although it still requires funding and some changes in law to
become reality.

It also envisions coordination with the suburbs, but a planned forum with
the region's mayors on the issue has not materialized as yet.

Guaspirini agreed that a similar attempt to take the lead on the issue is
needed in the South Fraser, although he added it has taken Vancouver many
years to get even to this point.

He also said specific drug programs continue in the absence of a
coordinated approach, such as Surrey's needle-exchange program and an
effort to license the city's drug recovery homes.

Nevertheless, "it's not going to happen just by providing services," he
said, referring to the need for a comprehensive plan.