VANCOUVER, B.C. -
Some people call him the unofficial mayor of the Downtown Eastside.
Chuck Parker is an HIV-positive, hepatitis C-positive reformed drug addict who lives and works in the Downtown Eastside - but doesn't earn a paycheque that way.
His job is to help heroin and cocaine addicts who use Insite, downtown Vancouver's supervised injection site, to get off out of the vicious cycle of addiction.
But only if they want to, he says, because the trouble is, the support system has to be there at the precise moment when an addict wants to get clean.
And that is the why, in spite of efforts by the federal government to shut it down, Insite needs to stay open, Parker says.
"It's that ripple effect, you throw a rock into a pond, and that ripple goes out through the pond," he said.
"If I can help one more person throw another pebble, we get more and more people helping each other, we can maybe save some lives, save Insite, where these people are saving many lives. That's what it boils down to."
Parker has been an addict for more than 42 years, since he was 12, he says over coffee at the Ovaltine Caf�, a neighbourhood mainstay.
Just steps away is Vancouver's notorious intersection of Main and Hastings Streets -- otherwise known as Pain and Wastings -- for the number of desperate, sick, homeless people who meet in the area.
There are heroin addicts shooting drugs on the sidewalk, and police officers trying to get a handle on someone out of control. Anyone walking the street could buy any drug they wanted here at this intersection.
Parker has been clean off all street drugs for two years as a direct result of the support he found at Insite.
A regular visitor to the facility, he used to inject cocaine and heroin, but now he is on a methadone maintenance program, along with a cocktail of drugs to fight HIV and hepatitis C.
"It's really new for me," he said. "You don't become an addict overnight and you certainly don't get cured overnight. I do use marijuana ... by smoking a joint, it helps me to be able to eat."
In the two years since he has been clean, he has a new credit card, a cell phone, a rent-controlled apartment in the area and whole new lease on life, which he spends mostly helping other people in the Downtown Eastside.
The History of Insite
Insite supervised injection site has operated since 2003 on East Hastings Street in the Downtown Eastside under an exemption granted by the federal government.
Parker advocated for Insite at its inception, as then-president of Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users (VANDU), when he lived in the very building Insite would later occupy.
A detox centre, Onsite, now occupies the building above Insite. It opened earlier this year.
Operated by Vancouver Coastal Health Authority and non-profit organization Portland Hotel Society, Insite sees an average of 600 visits a day.
In a two-year period from 2004 to 2006, Insite documented more than 450 overdoses, none of which resulted in fatalities - whereas almost all would have undoubtedly resulted in fatalities if they had taken place on the street.
Insite staff have given more than 4,000 referrals, including nearly 40 per cent of those to addiction counselling in that same period, and more than 350 referrals to withdrawal management programs.
At Insite, users are asked to sign in upon entering, wait their turn and proceed to a booth when they are called. They sit at one of the private booths with mirrors above on the wall, so they sit under the watchful eyes of qualified nurses as they cook their drugs and inject them.
If a nurse sees a user 'dropping,' or dropping their head as a result of an overdose, they can use Narcan, a narcotic antagonist which stops the effects of an overdose, a defibrillator or call emergency services in to attend to users immediately.
Parker says addiction can take people to new lows, and he speaks from experience. He says he used to shoot drugs with water from puddles, and he was so addicted he was ready to rob a bank or rob a dealer just to get his next fix.
That Insite's medical staff is there to support the users of the facility can make the difference between life and death for a drug user in the Downtown Eastside, he says.
"Addiction has so many faces," says Parker. "To put a friendly face to it with somebody who's going to sit there beside you and not judge you, and just say, 'we're here,' and when you finally reach your hand out, hopefully there's somebody there to grab it and pull you along. But without Insite, there's going to be none of that."
The drug laws
Last week, a B.C. Supreme Court ruled in support of Insite, striking down laws prohibiting possession and trafficking of drugs for users of the site. The ruling gives Ottawa until June 30, 2009 to amend its drug law, and in the meantime, the site is exempt.
But federal Health Minister Tony Clement told reporters the government strongly disagrees with the ruling and will not hesitate to file an appeal.
"Our government believes that the best way to deal with the health issues of drug addicts is to offer treatment and prevent people from getting on to illicit drugs in the first place," he told reporters.
The vast body of research done on the site, conducted by health experts, doctors and countless studies, is in favour of harm reduction as an effective way to treat addiction, according to Mark Townsend, director of the Portland Hotel Society.
"It seems 100 per cent obvious that this is coming from (Prime Minister) Stephen Harper," he said on the phone from Ottawa on Thursday, where he was planting crosses on Parliament Hill to show the number of people who have died as a result of drug addiction.
"It's coming from his own ideology, so he's putting his own ideology above the evidence, which is overwhelming, and he's also doing something even more risky ... he's interfering in public health."
Townsend says the government is just 'being spiteful' by appealing the decision, when the court process costs exorbitant amounts of time and money, and it has already spent $2 million of its own funding on research.
While there is a possibility the federal government will win the appeal in the coming months, Townsend believes it is unlikely.
There is no shortage of Canadian politicians who have publicly recognized the positive effects of Insite.
Quebec Health Minister Philippe Couillard said this week his province has an interest in establishing a similar facility, and B.C. Health Minister George Abbott has called Insite an opportunity to help people beat drug addiction. Liberal MP Ujjal Dosanjh has done an about-face on the issue since he was Attorney-General of B.C. He originally disagreed with the idea but has since thrown his support behind it.
If Harper knew the horrific life experiences of most of the people who use Insite, Townsend says the solution to keep it would be obvious.
"And if the truth is that if they can't get off drugs we're going to condemn them to die, then it's a pretty gross place to live," he said.
Parker says it's important to keep in mind Insite's ability to refer users to detox centres and addiction programs.
The window of opportunity to quit drugs is fleeting and may be a person's only chance to get out of the vicious cycle, he says.
"That window is so tiny that if you're not there to help them right now, you're going to lose them. You must be able to provide that opportunity, a place where they can ask questions."
The benefits of recovery
Without Insite, the Downtown Eastside will once again be littered with needles and needle wrappers, and there will be more drugs and more drug users on the streets, Parker says.
When Parker finally decided he wanted to get off heroin and cocaine completely, he knew he needed to maintain a methadone program, but he didn't know how to go about it without help from the staff at Insite.
A couple of years ago, Parker did not wash or bathe, didn't wear his false teeth or cut his hair, he said.
"I didn't care whether I lived or died," he said.
Parker says for the first time in years, he cares about his own life, and others'.
"And now, I care," Parker says. "I am going to outlive my doctor, and he's younger than me."
