of the problem From page4 Wesclowski said. The problem of providing more services on the North Shore for people with drug addictions is nvofold: the need to accept that there are drug users in all socio-economic groups from the — British Properties to Lower Lonsdale and that drug dealers are selling on the North Snore, maybe even at the school your chil- dren go to. Weselowski said if vou want to clean up your neighbour- hood, it’s just 2 matter of your priorities. “People don’t Fwe a clear picture of what an asset a recovery house can be. IF (North Shore) councillors wanted I could have a place running — in a week,” Wreselowski said. “But if you’re going into a neighbourhood you have to work against the initial fear. A lot of people are going up " against an imaginary bogey- : man,” Weselowski said about the not in my backyard (NIMBY) | attitude he first - experienced in uidam, ; PFs howl addicts | ecst taxpayers $1,200 a night, whereas Innervisions charges $36 a day for the first month and $18 thercafter. The savings to the taxpayer are immense but the startup costs for a recovery centre can be daunting without govern- ment funding. : Seaview’s Baird said it takes $250,000 to operate the aver- age ‘12-bed recovery house, - not to mention complying with municipal bylaws. Wesclowski recently had to spend $12,000 installing a sprinkler system at . Innervisions to comply with Coquitam bylaws. Weselowski’s Innervisions crogram is abstinence-based unlike sone methadone (3 nar- cotic prescribed as a heroin substitute) recovery homes, which Weselowski thinks pre- long the slippery slope on the road to recovery, But Bud Osborn, founder of the Vancouver Area Nerwork of Drug Users (VANDU), maintains “absti- nence programs don’t work” claiming some oniy have a 3% success rate, Osborn, a social activist, member of the Vancouver Richmond Health Beard, poet, teacher and film actor, has been one of the biggest promoters of the controversial safe injection sites in the Downtown Eastside. Batling conservative police attitudes that focus on dealing with drugs more from a crime erspective than a health prob- lem, Osborn views B.C.’s gov- ernment and faw cnforcement establishment as behind the times compared to some Eurapean nations. “Europe sees a_ social responsibility that we don’t. If you're on drugs it’s seen as your fault in North America,” Osbarn said. In recent years, Switzerland and Germany have offerect affordable housing and legal- ized heroin for drag addicts, administering heroin and methadone through doctors, in the hopes of monvating people to seck work and reintegrate into regular society. “It’s like sending the Japanese to internment camps,” Osborn said of the police roundups of drug deal- ers this. spring in the Downtown Eastside. If you have beer injured in an auto accident Stephen Anderson 922-8881 SAGER ANDERSON LAWRENCE 2S Barristers & Solicitors 235-15th Street, West Vancouver ran a [~ The Sun is Back! protect your furnishings iter Seeks Sunday, August 29, 1999 -- Nornh Shore News — 5 KEWS phote Paul McGrath DONNA Baird from Seaview Alcohel and Drug Services at a counselling session in West Vancouver. Although Wesclowski has met with success (75% of the 1,300 people using the Innervision program remain sober), many other recovery centres suffer a recidivism rate "as great as 80%, according to Wesclowski. But Wesclowski © knows Canada sill = not = adopt European attitudes any sme soon and is cvitical of the polit- ical process that stipulated he tun a methadone recovery pro- if he wanted government tunding. “While the puiticians are having het-winded debates, dealing is going on right now supporting adaicts,” Wesclowski said. Brewer tried the recovery program at Kinghaven = in Abbotsford this spring only to relapse into the drug cycle. Brewer is now giving himself a final chance to get clean forev- er at Wesclowski’s Innervisions. Brewer's wife is expecting a baby and although he is sepa- rated from his wife, he said he is motivated once and for all to make a clean break from the cocaine habit he started in 1990. Once recognized as ene of the more promising people in his class at Carson Graham sec- ondary, Brewer has scen friends dic and some commit suicide after prolonged drug usc. Brewer said he was the drug provider at partics in the late 1980s, often hanging out FUTON BLOWOUT! 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Mersill Lynch Canada Inc-member CiPF. behind the William Griffin recreation centre passing around joints for free before moving up to cight-balls of cocaine (eighth of an ounce). “The luxuries of quick money, fast cars and lots of women is rot worth it. “[’'m focused on sobriety now,” Brewer said of his $200- a-day habit a few years ago. No one maintains solutions to funding drug facilities is casy, but in the end it comes down to one statement by Weselowski: “Your ability is limited only by your willing: ness.” It applics to communities too. As Wesclowski said, if peo- ple on the North Shore don’t perceive drugs as being a prob- lem in their cormmunity, they won't pressure their politicians, educators and health board officials to do anything about it. Be Jewelled SS; We specialize in ign Mazine Dr., West Van 922-3914 woes one) tallations 1