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British
Columbia
Premier
Backs
Vancouver
Agreement,
Heroin
Maintenance
12/15/00
As Vancouver authorities and concerned parties grapple with the final shape of that city's program to deal with its hard drug problem, British Columbia Premier Ujjal Dosanjh has offered his first comments on the plan. (See http://www.drcnet.org/wol/162.html#vancouver3.0 for a detailed look at the plan.) Dosanjh told The Province (Vancouver) and the Vancouver Sun in separate interviews last week that he supported the plan, even going so far as to say he could support a program that would provide medically prescribed heroin to addicts. The Vancouver plan calls only for the city to participate in a North American study of heroin maintenance programs. "My preference would be to expand the methadone program and to expand counseling programs," Dosanjh told The Province. But, the premier added, heroin maintenance under "very strict, controlled conditions" could benefit users who cannot be "stabilized" through methadone or other treatment regimes. Dosanjh used almost identical language in his interview with the Sun's editorial board. The premier also told both newspapers he supported drug courts, which the Vancouver plan proposes. The plan also calls for a task force to study the desirability of safe injection sites, but Dosanjh has vacillated in his position on the controversial harm reduction proposal. In his interview with The Province, he joined Vancouver Mayor Philip Owen in rejecting the idea out of hand. Owen has publicly worried that safe injection sites would draw addicts from across Canada. But his comments to the Sun the next day were more equivocal. He seemed to retract his flat opposition to safe injection sites, instead saying sites alone would not suffice. "Safe injection sites per se won't do the job," he told the Sun, before going on to reiterate his conditional support for heroin maintenance. Activists in Vancouver have vowed to open such sites -- with or without government assistance -- early next year. Dosanjh also said the province was ready to assume a role in financing the latest incarnation of the Vancouver Agreement, providing that the federal government also does its part. The agreement's overarching goal, which it calls key to the overall success of the plan, is to achieve a coordinated response from all levels of government. Dosanjh's comments indicate he is listening, but he has yet to indicate at what level the province will fund the effort, which is estimated to cost $20 million US over the next few years. Under Dosanjh's direction, the provincial government has so far contributed $1.3 million US to Vancouver health and addiction services.
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