Vancouver's Inner Change Foundation Strongly Supports BCMA Call to Recognize Addiction as a Chronic Disease
"Investments in treatment can also hit gangs in the pocket book"
The Inner Change Foundation, a Vancouver-based society supporting the development of innovative drug treatment solutions, today expressed their strong support for the British Columbia Medical Association (BCMA)'s call to recognize addiction as a chronic disease. At the same time, the Foundation also noted that investments in proven treatment can save money by hitting organized crime in the pocket book.
"We agree with BCMA that governments need to focus new investments on treatment that will pay dividends for the individual addict - and society as a whole," said Inner Change Executive Director Trish Walsh. "The status quo is not meeting the basic needs of our most vulnerable citizens and feeding the growing profits of organized crime in the Lower Mainland."
The Inner Change Foundation says the solution to the problem must include strategically breaking the connection between the personal addiction and the profit of organized crime.
"The profits of the open drug market in the Downtown Eastside are helping to fuel the current gang war," added Ms. Walsh. "We need to break that cycle by extending successful innovative programs like the North American Opiate Medication Initiative (NAOMI) that clearly demonstrated heroin maintenance works and substitution treatment has great potential. We still don't know what the provincial government is waiting for."
NAOMI researchers took 251 chronic drug addicts and introduced them to bold new heroin-maintenance and substitution treatment over a three-year period. The results were revolutionary. Crime and illicit drug use went down -- health outcomes, quality of life and employment went up. Illicit heroin use fell by almost 70% among those in the study and the number of days of illegal activity and the amount spent on drugs decreased by almost half.
Since NAOMI ended in June 2008, many addicts have been left to relapse into the back alleys and the waiting arms of organized crime. The gangster's profits have returned and the taxpayers funded an $11 million research project that is sitting on a shelf.
BCMA estimates there are 33,000 British Columbians addicted to illicit drugs. The estimated cost of treating substance abuse in BC was more than $6 billion in 2002 - or $1500/person/year.
The math of drug addiction and organized crime in the Downtown Eastside
1. The NAOMI trial was highly cost effective:
• cost to run NAOMI = $20/day/addict
• $20/day/addict = $7,500/year
• 250 addicts = $1.8 million/year
2. The status quo - market of 1.000 heroin users:
• $9/fix @ 4 times/day = $36,000 in daily revenue for the dealer
• $36,000 in daily revenue = $13 million annual net income for organized crime
If a gang member can control that small market for just four years, they net more than $50 million in tax free revenue. No red tape. No consumer protection. Note many addicts spend upwards of $100/day on drugs, more than doubling these figures.
3. The cost of crime associated with finding money to buy drugs - based on 1,000 addicts receiving 20% of a stolen item's actual value:
• $40/day for drugs = $200,000 worth of stolen goods/day or prostitution
• $200,000 worth of stolen goods/day or prostitution = $73 million/year
4. This $86 million/year double whammy to tax payers is exceeded only by:
• the personal toll of homelessness and the sex trade
• our social service budget
• absenteeism in workplace/lost productivity
• administration costs of an over-run Court system
• health care costs
5. It is estimated that one in 10 visits to Vancouver General Hospital's emergency room is for substance abuse, while B.C. uses enough hospital beds for substance abuse care to fill Kelowna General Hospital every day for a year.
"Let's hope this call from the BCMA succeeds in some real action and investment," concluded Ms. Walsh. "Among other things, the provincial government and our local health authorities need to bring back the NAOMI clinic and take its groundbreaking findings to the next step. Chronic addicts will benefit and we can all feel a bit safer knowing our government is truly committed to using all the options available to solve these concurrent problems."
For more information, contact www.innerchangefoundation.org or Trish Walsh, Executive Director at 604 263-8591
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