Civil City Commissioner Geoff Plant (left) and
Michael Kirby, Chair of the Mental Health Commission of Canada, at the Collaboration for Change in Vancouver last April. 
A self-described stickler for prompt work-start times, Murray Wightman was curious about how his latest three recruits would treat their arrival to work with the City’s Street Operations department. After all Wightman, who is manager of Street Operations, had just dismissed another recruit who took a casual approach to the business day, sometimes showing up for his 7 am shift as late as 9:15 and even 10 am.
The sky-blue boxes sprinkled through the core of Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside (DTES) are keeping a slowly growing number of used needles off of the streets. And Vancouver Coastal Health (VCH) is currently examining the possibility of expanding the number of boxes around the city.
Now, yellow needle boxes are sprouting on Victoria City signs and light poles, as that city starts collecting needles with its own brand of boxes.
Long before Vancouver embarked on its innovative Four Pillars Drug Strategy, the city was home to groundbreaking drug research: the world’s first methadone maintenance treatment clinic.
It’s a small, black plastic bag with a wooden chopstick sticking out of it. Inside are several items, collectively worth $1.66, that could save a life. Syd Malchy empties the kit onto the table and pokes through items.
On May 15, the City’s Drug Policy Program (DPP) posted a new page on its website and entered the network of podcasters across Canada and around the world. The DPP’s foray into podcasting represents an effort to reach out to a broader audience and add greater depth to the discussion around the Four Pillars approach to drug policy.