COP'S REPORT STATES HOW MUCH DRUG USERS SPEND

Two-thirds of heroin and cocaine users in a Downtown Eastside survey have admitted to spending at least $50 per day on illicit drugs.  Almost half admitted they spend $100 or more per day, according to the study conducted by two SFU students.

Over an eight-day period in January 2003, SFU students Gareth Bradley and Jennifer Parks were accompanied by Vancouver police Const.  Gerry Wickstead as they surveyed 100 people using cocaine or heroin in alleys.  According to a 224-page report written by Wickstead, the officer identified himself and told respondents that they wouldn't be charged and their drugs wouldn't be confiscated.

"One of the respondents told us how he recently spent his entire insurance settlement of $30,000 on drugs," Wickstead wrote in the report Treadmill of Addiction.  "He came from Vancouver's Kitsilano neighbourhood and rented a room on the Hastings strip for one big month-long drug binge.  Once the street people heard of his new found wealth he quickly acquired an abundance of friends."

Wickstead noted that a person with a legitimate job would have to earn at least $52,000 per year to afford a $100-per-day drug habit, assuming a 30-percent annual income-tax bill.  Almost 60 percent of the drug users surveyed said they would take drug treatment if it were available to them, and 65 percent said it would be best to have treatment facilities outside of Vancouver.

Wickstead wrote that the drug users openly admitted to committing crimes on a daily basis.  One said there was no other place in the world where someone could sell drugs across the street from the police station, and almost all said there was no fear of prosecution on the Downtown Eastside.

"More tax-free money can pass through their hands each day than the average working citizen may see in a week," Wickstead reported.  "They rarely get caught and criminally charged for their actions."

He also cited Statistics Canada figures suggesting that in 2001, nobody was criminally charged in 99 percent of reported thefts from autos, theft of bicycles, and distributing counterfeit currency.  The report stated that in 2000, on average, there were 50 reported violent crimes and 599 reported property crimes per day in B.C.  that remained unsolved.  Just over a third of the drug users in the survey claimed that people are deterred from committing crimes when there is a "strong police presence" on the Downtown Eastside.

The report suggested there was little enforcement, which is part of the city's four-pillars approach for addressing illicit-drug addiction.

Rob Morgan, president of the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users, told the Straight that he questions the methodology of having a police officer present during interviews.  "On the Downtown Eastside, the Vancouver police are known publicly and personally as being violent towards drug offenders and drug users," he alleged.

Morgan claimed that he supported his crack-cocaine habit in 2001 and 2002 by working at a temporary agency.  "A lot of my friends worked at temp agencies to feed our addiction," he said.

VANDU project coordinator Ann Livingston told the Straight that Wickstead adopted a "practical" approach by examining the relationship between drug addiction and crime.  However, she said she disagreed with his overall message that there needs to be more enforcement.  "It's odd that he would draw the conclusion that we need more police," she said.  "I would draw the conclusion that we need more heroin prescriptions."

Livingston added that she regrets that Wickstead didn't examine the cost of drug addiction to the health-care system.  She also suggested that many addicts end up in jail because they breach an undertaking to avoid an area or fail to appear in court.