No more shooting up in public, Vancouver police tell junkies

Police in Vancouver say they plan to start arresting drug addicts who shoot up in public, an uncontroversial idea in some cities but not in Vancouver.

The police say they want to get drug use out of the streets and doorways of the Downtown Eastside and into the city's supervised injection site.

Supervised injection site

Some addicts and people who work with them call it a dangerous move.

Dr. Anita Palepu, who treats people for illnesses associated with needle drugs, says the culture of open drug use is deeply ingrained in Vancouver's addicts.

She says police are mistaken if they expect to change it just two years after the opening of the injection site, the first of its kind in North America.

• FROM SEPT. 23, 2004: Safe injection site saving lives: report

She says addicts going through withdrawal can't wait in lineups at the site and she fears the crackdown will prevent them from being treated for communicable diseases.

"I worry, if the police are out there busting people for using drugs openly, people will just get displaced and go to other neighbourhoods where there's actually very little facilities for them."

Police acknowledge that they don't expect that charging addicts will actually result in any jail time. But they say they can't continue turning a blind eye to drug use that's so open on the city's streets.

Inspector Bob Rolls says the aim is to steer addicts to the injection site.

Shooting up "stretched out on the steps"

There are thousands of users in the Downtown Eastside, but other people still have to work and live in the neighbourhood, he says.

He recalls one complaint from a volunteer at a community centre:

"The woman was stretched out on the steps and she was shooting a needle into her neck. When the volunteer complained, she lashed out at her – how dare she interfere with her when she just managed to get this needle in the right position to inject?"

No room at supervised site: addict

Diane Tobin, 54, who shoots up at the injection site three times a day, says the site is already at capacity and it's time to talk about opening another. And because rules state that addicts have to inject themselves, it means people who need help shooting up are out on the street where they face arrest.

"If that cubbyhole is your home and you're sleeping there and all your stuff is there and that's where you're using," she says, "they're actually coming into your home and arresting you for possession of a needle."

Tobin, who served a drug sentence decades ago, says the police plan "is like going back 20, 25 years. It's ridiculous."