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City creating new position u to tackle illegal drug trade -
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B8 Alison Appelbe d a f f writer
IN ITS DETERMINATION TO PLAY a bigger rdle in dealing with the city's illegal drug scene, city council is expected Tuesday to create a position of drug policy co-ordinator. In a report to council, city manager Judy Rbgers said the $70,000-a-year position will eriable the city to develop and co-ordinate strategies more effectively, reduce drug consumption, and discourage outsiders from coming to Vancouver to buy and use hard drugs. "The notion that cities must take the leadership to address their drug problems is common in Europe and gaining currency in Canada and the United States," wrote Rogers. "Vancouver bears the major burden of the regional drug problem, and therefore must fully participate." Rogers says the city is determined to reduce the effects of illegal drugs on residents of the Dbwntown Eastside, Chinatown, Gastown and Strathcona and other communities. The co-ordinaror will be responsible for addressing the need for treatment options for addicts on the Downtown Eastside, as well as in other parts of the city and region. The staff member will also work to reduce the sale of illegal drugs, the widespread practice of shooting up in public, and related crnninal and nuisance behaviour: The report outlines the history of drug use in the city that has lead to soaring HIV/AIDS and Hepatitis C infection rates among intravenous drug users, and to 1,200 drug over-
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~fr~dioisanindication, the Mayor seems to be dose deaths during the past decade. learning.. It attributes the growth of the drug market in the 1980s to factors that include poverty, J'Guiliad' (referringto the expulsion of prostitutes and drug dealers New York's policy of arfrom areas like the West End, and the release resting the poor and sane. of hundreds of mental patients from tioned police violence) Riverview Hospital. The introduction of large quantities of in- won't work here" expensive cocaine and cheap, potent heroin ( - detox, treatment, harm drove legitimate businesses from the Downreduction town Eastside, the report said, and the area - Europe has successes became a magnet for addicts.
In the 1990s, an often contentious debate on what do to about substance abuse and its effects on the community got underway. Landmark studies and decisions include: chief coroner Vince Cain's report on 200 overdose deaths in 1993, and call for drug addition to be treated as a health, rather than a criminal, issue; provincial health officer Dr. John Millar's call for more services for mentally ill addicts, tightly controlled prescription of heroin, and a drug-court pilot program; a 1997 Vancouver-Richmond Health Board plan to expand services to drug users and involve the wider community in the problem; the recent Vancouver Agreement among the city, province and federal governments to develop a comprehensive substance misuse strategy for the city. Council is also expected to spend $4,500 to send city social planner Donald MacPherson to Jersey in the Channel Islands, and Amsterdam, for the 1 lth International Conference of Drug Related Harm.
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