VANCOUVER RESIDENTS SOFTEN VIEWS ON DRUGS

Public support for decriminalizing marijuana has grown while an exceptional
number back city's proposed strategy on drugs, poll shows

Softer on marijuana legalization but heroin unchanged Vancouverites' views
on addiction.

Vancouver residents have become tired of the traditional war on drugs.

In just three years, support among city residents for decriminalizing
marijuana has grown from 47 per cent to 57 per cent. An unusually high 61
per cent say they support the medical use of heroin for drug treatment.

And an exceptional number support the city's proposed new drug strategy,
even endorsing the plan's most controversial recommendation -- setting up a
task force to consider setting up safe drug-injection sites.

Those were the results from a $14,000 public-opinion survey conducted for
the city of Vancouver in December to give city staff and politicians
information about public reaction to the proposed drug strategy announced
in November.

The strategy emphasizes a "four-pillar" approach, with improvements
suggested for enforcement, treatment, harm reduction and prevention that
would help save lives, keep people healthier, reduce drug use, and improve
public order in the open drug markets of Vancouver's Downtown Eastside.

Pollster Joan McIntyre, whose company Joan McIntyre Market and Opinion
Research conducted the survey in conjunction with McIntyre/Mustel, said the
overwhelming support for the city's strategy was unusual for her to see in
polling.

"The results are very dramatic. It's rare to see results that are so positive."

Many contentious social public-policy issues produce polarized results in
B.C. polls, she said, with the public often splitting 50-50.

But she said the kind of responses people gave to the poll's several dozen
questions about various aspects of the city's policy showed support at a
level equal to the kind usually seen for issues such as universal access to
health care or wildlife preservation.

Even the recommendation that has been the most controversial part of the
30-point plan, to set up a task force to consider developing safe-injection
sites, got unusual support, although it got less support than other parts
of the plan, she said.

Thirty-eight per cent of people strongly supported the idea --
significantly more than the 26 per cent of those who both strongly or
somewhat opposed it -- and another 33 per cent supported it generally.

The only other city strategy that got a similar lukewarm response was the
proposal to expand and decentralize needle-exchange services.

Again, although support was lower than for other parts of the strategy, it
still got 68 per cent support.

Simon Fraser University Professor Bruce Alexander, author of Peaceful
Measures: Canada's Way Out of the War on Drugs, says he isn't surprised by
the survey's findings.

"It's no shocker," said the professor, who sees similar trends in the
opinions of the students he teaches.

"People are willing to listen to both sides of the argument," he said,
noting that public fear often prevents rational discussion of the social
costs and actual danger of drugs like marijuana and heroin.

"The public is becoming less knee-jerk about it."

McIntyre agreed, citing the results of a survey she did for the city three
years ago to gauge public attitudes to drugs, when the mayor's coalition on
crime and safety was just beginning.

At that time, the city was polarized on the issue of marijuana, with 47 per
cent supporting decriminalization and 41 per cent opposing it.

That has now shifted, so that 57 per cent of the city residents surveyed
supported or strongly supported decriminalization, while opposition dropped
to 31 per cent.

People are still as opposed to legalizing heroin as they were three years
ago, with 74 per cent still opposed, and only small increases in those
supporting it.

But the new poll showed considerable support for using heroin for drug
treatment. Thirty-two per cent of those surveyed strongly supported it,
another 29 per cent somewhat supported it, and only 23 per cent were
opposed. The issue of giving medically prescribed heroin to long-time
addicts has received a significant amount of media attention in Vancouver
over the past three years, as the city and community groups have looked
around the world to places like Switzerland and Germany for solutions to
the city's drug problem.

The survey comes at a critical time for the city. It is currently holding
forums to get public response to its plan, with the intention of finalizing
its drug strategy by April.

The strategy has deeply divided council, with Councillors Lynne Kennedy,
Don Lee and Daniel Lee opposed, and rookie Councillor Sandy McCormick
showing signs of sympathizing with the opposition. On the other side, Mayor
Philip Owen has championed the strategy, staking his political career on it
some say, with Councillors Jennifer Clarke, George Puil and Sam Sullivan
from his own party in support, along with Councillors Tim Louis and Fred
Bass from the opposition party.

A coalition of business owners and residents in neighbourhoods surrounding
the Downtown Eastside has been militantly opposed to the city's strategy,
saying it puts too much emphasis on harm reduction and not enough on
prevention, treatment and enforcement.

In response to questions from councillors, McIntyre said the poll wasn't
detailed enough to allow her to say how attitudes varied from neighbourhood
to neighbourhood. She also couldn't say what percentage of the respondents
came from Vancouver's high number of ethnic minority households where
English is a second language.

A few questions in the survey showed some slight regional differences.

For instance, people east of Main were the most in support of a task force
to look at establishing safe-injection sites, with those from the downtown
showing the highest level of opposition, and west siders in the middle.

The survey did not, however, indicate that people do not believe in
enforcement. Questions about increasing enforcement, instituting mandatory
treatment for repeated criminals who are addicts, and setting up drug
courts all got extremely high levels of support, in the high 80 per cent range.

The pollsters surveyed 300 residents and said the results are considered
accurate within plus or minus 5.7 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.