Debunking the Myths About Treatment

by Heather Hay, Director Vancouver Coastal Health and David Marsh, Physician Leader, Addiction Medicine, VCH
The third Mayor's Four Pillars Coalition meeting drew about 70 participants to the Central Library on June 1. Among presentations given, Heather Hay (Director of Vancouver Coastal Health Authority) and David Marsh (Physician Leader, Addiction Medicine, VCHA) discussed myths and realities associated with treatment.

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How are we approaching the prevention of problematic drug use in Vancouver?

by Zarina Mulla, Social Planner, DPP
Over the next few months, the Drug Policy Program of the City of Vancouver will be working with the community to develop a strategy to address problematic drug use in Vancouver. The strategy will be a comprehensive, integrated and evidence-based document aiming to provide a roadmap for the citizens of Vancouver and City Council to identify and implement options to address problematic drug use in the city.

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Street Nurse Informs Victoria on Four Pillars Approach

by James Tigchelaar, Street Nurse with the BCCDC Street Nurse Program
So what changes have the street nurses who work on the streets of the downtown eastside noticed? I'll say right off the bat that the public view of the open drug scene in the DTES is diminished. The city wide enforcement team has had a dramatic impact on the open drug scene.
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Latest Drug Use Data in CCENDU Report

by Theresa Beer, Communications Coordinator, DPP
The number of clients in the BC Methadone program more than doubled in the last five years. An analysis of drug samples seized at raves between September 2001 and June 2003, shows that more than 58 per cent contained methamphetamine.

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Fix Best Documentary Film in Canada

Nettie Wild's, Fix: The Story of An Addicted City, won the Canadian genie award this year for best documentary film. Fix is a confronting and powerful documentary which chronicles the fight to stop the drug death toll and manage Vancouver's addiction issues.

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News in Brief

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Enforcement Pillar Laying the Foundation

by Mayor Larry Campbell

In April 2003 the VPD initiated a Citywide Enforcement Team (CET) whose goals involved ãdisrupting the open drug market and interrupting the cycle of crime and drug use that marks the streets of the Downtown Eastside.ä It involved the re-deployment of officers from other areas of the city to the DTES in an attempt to restore order to a community in distress.

While this policing strategy directed towards the open drug scene has been effective in ending the worst of it, it has also been controversial.

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Simon Fraser University , one of the early members of the Coalition for Crime Prevention and Drug Treatment (renamed the Four Pillars Coalition) in 1997, is continuing its commitment to an important civic initiative: a partnership with the city's Drug Policy Program to further the prevention pillar.

Municipalities Key to International Harm Reduction Conference

by Donald MacPherson, Drug Policy Coordinator, City of Vancouver
Mayor Larry Campbell's speech at the 15 th annual International Harm Reduction Association (IHRA) conference this year in Melbourne Australia (April 20 ö 24) fit perfectly into a key theme at the conference: the role of municipalities. Mayor Campbell, invited by the Council of Capital City Lord Mayors as a key note speaker, spoke of Vancouver 's process in developing a comprehensive city-wide drug strategy. He focused on the response to the public health disaster that we witnessed during the 90's in the Downtown Eastside and interventions, including the supervised injection site, to reduce the negative impacts of problematic drug use, addiction and the drug market on our inner city communities.

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