Vancouver, B.C., Mayor Sam Sullivan last week announced his plan to ask the Canadian government to grant his city an exemption from portions of the national drug-control policy in order to launch a “substitution therapy” pilot program to treat hundreds of the city’s chronic cocaine and methamphetamine addicts (akin to the classic methadone treatment for heroin addicts).
The therapy plan – seemingly part of a drive to make sure the city is spiffed up and ready for the 2010 Winter Olympics – would target at least 700 of the city’s addicts according to the DRCNet, and is part of Vancouver’s broader Project Civil City, a set of initiatives that seek to reduce homelessness, aggressive panhandling and open-air drug dealing by at least 50% over the next three years.
If Sullivan gets permission from government officials, Vancouver’s substitution program would be the largest ever of its kind. Indeed, doctors at the Substance Abuse Research Center at UT Health Science Center in Houston – and, in particular, Dr. John Grabowski, the Center director – have been studying the use of common prescription drugs to stabilize narcotic dependency – including use of dextro-amphetamine (often used to treat Attention Deficit Disorder) as a replacement for coke and meth.
Sullivan says the proposed treatment represents a way to “separate the people with addictions and mental illnesses from the criminals,” he said in a Jan. 22 press release. “Once this is achieved, our police will be in a better position to focus their resources on cracking down on criminals.”
This article appears in January 26 • 2007.