Vancouver mayor wins big backing for drug plan
Prince George Citizen
Tue 20 Feb 2007
Source: Canadian Press
Mayor Sam Sullivan's ambitious plan to get drug addicts off Vancouver's mean streets now has backing from two high-profile board members.
Former politician John Reynolds and well-known medical professional Dr. Don Rix have been added to the board of Inner Change.
The new non-profit society will raise money for Sullivan's proposed Substitution Treatment Research Trial.
It will also direct the funds to various scientific organizations that would be involved in the program. Inner Change director Lois Johnson says getting an exemption for the trial from Health Canada is the first major hurdle.
Its policy forbids doctors from prescribing the drugs that would be used in the trial for those purposes.
When the trial is up and running, it will provide orally ingested replacement drugs for people addicted to stimulants such as crack cocaine and crystal meth.
It would work much the same way as programs that offer free methadone for heroin addicts.
Reynolds is a former leader of the Opposition federally and Speaker of the legislature provincially.
Dr. Rix, chairman of Cantest and MDS Metro Laboratory Services, is also a volunteer and philanthropist with ties to UNBC.
He currently sits as the chair of the university's board of governors. In 2005, he donated $3 million to UNBC, which was used to held establish the Dr. Donald Rix Northern Health Sciences Centre.
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