Aftermath of a decade of no prohibitions

"Harm reduction" advocates target addicts and critics  

Supervised injection site epitomizes warped philosophy in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside
  By Mark Hasiuk, Vancouver Courier, Sept. 15, 2010
In the year 2000, mayor Philip Owen introduced his Four Pillars drug strategy aimed at widespread drug addiction in the Downtown Eastside. The results have been disastrous. Addiction has flourished.

Homelessness has doubled. Blessed with official sanction, the drug culture grows.

Owen left office in 2002, leaving behind a broken neighbourhood. Now a "harm reduction" celebrity, he travels the world attending drug policy conferences in the United States, Europe and Asia. And in 2008, he was named to the Order of Canada, ending any speculation about that institution's relationship with reality.

Meanwhile, back in the Downtown Eastside, a small band of true believers took Owen's cue and mobilized forces--in plain view of a pathetic media--to experiment on neighbourhood residents. In 2003, Insite, the supervised injection site at 139 East Hastings, opened for business. In 2005, at nearby 84 West Hastings, the NAOMI study staged North America's first government-sponsored heroin giveaway. Sometime soon at the same location, hundreds of addicts will receive up to three daily doses of high-grade pharmaceutical heroin as part of the four-year SALOME study.

Use of opiate doda spreading in B.C.: experts

CBC News, August 26, 2010
Consumption of the opiate doda, an illegal and addictive concoction made from dried poppy pods, is out of control in Metro Vancouver's South Asian community, say experts in Surrey.

Dr. Gulzar Cheema said doda has been popular in the South Asian community for years and is currently sold under the counter in many pawnshops, video stores and other retail outlets.

Doda is a powder made by grinding the seed pods of opium poppies and is usually used to make a type of tea.

Police have ignored the problem for so long, it's now as common as marijuana in some circles, said Cheema.

He said recovery from doda addiction can be severe.

"Loss of appetite, tremors, panic, panic attacks," Cheema said. "You get stomach cramps; some people get diarrhea and vomiting."

George Michael gets 8 weeks jail for drug driving

By JILL LAWLESS (AP), 9/14/10
LONDON -- George Michael was sentenced to eight weeks in jail and lost his license for five years Tuesday for driving under the influence of drugs when he crashed his car into a London photo shop.

A British judge told the wayward star his addiction to marijuana put him and the public at risk.

The former Wham! singer pleaded guilty last month to driving under the influence and possession of cannabis following a July 4 collision between his Range Rover and a Snappy Snaps store in north London.

District Judge John Perkins told the singer he had taken a "dangerous and unpredictable mix" of prescription drugs and marijuana.

"It does not appear that you took proper steps to deal with what is clearly an addiction to cannabis," the judge said. "That's a mistake which puts you and, on this occasion, the public at risk."

A mayor's pre-emptive, enlightened war on homelessness

(Surrey's mayor Dianne Watt is determined to prevent the creation of a Vancouver-style, drug-infested "Downtown Eastside" skid row due to pro-drug liberalism)

Surrey homeless fight starts at the top

by Glenda Luymes, The Province: Friday, September 10, 2010

Erin Barber was running out of options.

After several hours trying to get a heroin addict into detox, the Surrey outreach worker had come up dry.

And as night came on, emergency room staff at Surrey Memorial Hospital said the sick man had to go.

“He’d gone through the worst part of withdrawal,” said Barber. “If he could get into detox, he might have a chance [at recovery]. If he was released on to the street, he’d find a way to use again.”

Barber scrolled through the numbers in her cellphone and decided to make one last call — to the mayor.

You might not expect a desperate outreach worker to call the mayor, but in Surrey, Dianne Watts has made the city’s social issues a personal — and council — priority.

The city was the first in B.C. to establish a homelessness and housing fund armed with $9.7 million for projects aimed at reducing homelessness. The mayor also established a task force of various government, business and community partners to find service gaps and increase communication between service providers.

“The last thing any of us wanted was a Downtown Eastside,” Watts said on a recent tour of the city’s homeless projects. “We made sure we were very hands on.”

And the strategy is working.