What is CAST?

Chronic Addiction Substitution Treatment Trial, or CAST, is a research trial that will work with addicted people to change their drug habits from illegal street drugs to legally available, orally-administered prescription medications. Health Canada must approve a Clinical Trial proposal for the research trials to use prescription medications in this innovative way. The research would analyze the effects on both the user’s health and the community at large. Regular interaction with health professionals will facilitate interventions to help users develop an “exit strategy” to end their drug dependency.

Measurable outcomes from the project for the community would include a reduction in the open drug market, a reduction in property crimes, and a reduction in aggressive panhandling and public nuisance complaints. Outcomes for the individual would be reduced illegal activity and subsequent arrests, increased level of housing options, increased health and increased employment opportunities.

Traditional drug addiction treatments have proven to be very successful for a large segment of people suffering from addiction. However, for roughly three quarters of the drug addicted population, traditional treatment has not resulted in abstinence in the long-term – substitution treatment offers an option for this population of illegal drug users. Ending drug dependency is the goal of substitution treatment.

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The Problem

Downtown Vancouver, in particular the area known as the Downtown Eastside (DTES), has become known for its large open drug scene, unsafe conditions for survival sex trade workers, violence, poor health outcomes and one of the most explosive HIV epidemics in North America. Despite decades of concerted interventions on the part of both the public and the private sector, people who live in, work in or visit this area remain at significant risk from both a health and a public order perspective.

Public illegal drug use, in particular the use of cocaine, is rampant; sex work remains visible and unsafe; addiction services are inadequate, poverty and homelessness are common – in fact, the rate of homelessness in the DTES has doubled in the past 5 years; and the HIV and HCV epidemics continue to grow. The average life expectancy for a man living in the downtown eastside is approximately 20 years less than in most other neighbourhoods in the city.

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Media

The CAST concept has been generating a lot of interest from the media.

>> Read what the media are saying...

Support

The CAST research trial and the concept behind the research is being supported by a wide range of people from all areas of society and across all political lines.

>> Read what supporters are saying...

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ArtCoreFromTheHardCore

Jun 28, 2007

People on the street of Vancouver need your support…

Read this blog on JUNKeLife:
People on the street of Vancouver need your support…
Monday June 25th 2007, 12:27 am

Well, the drugs have run out…

Well, not all the drugs. But the injectable drugs have run out.

We had our last fix about an hour ago. It’s always funny (not funny haha, but funny strange) doing the last hit. I’m always a little bit nervous. Nervous I don’t fuck it up - spill the spoon, plug the needle, miss the hit, or awful outcomes like that.

I’m glad to say the last hit went down like a charm. Cooked up great, hit a vein easily, and the bump was just right, not too strong, but strong enough.

So now what? Now it feels kind of funny too. Again, not funny haha, but funny strange. It’s been ages since there hasn’t been a hit waiting there for the morning. Yep, that good old morning hit. Exactly what I need to get the day started.

Yep, it feels funny. There’s a kind of emptiness, as if something’s just not right. It’s kind of a vague feeling, kind of like embarking into the unknown, and uncertainty about the future. Even though tomorrow’s morning pills are already there on my nightstand, with a glass of water to wash them down, just an arm-stretch away when I open my eyes to greet the dawn. And there’s enough of them that I won’t be sick.

And furthermore, we resupply with injectable in less that 24 hours. By dinner tomorrow we’ll already have gotten a fix into us. So what’s to be bothered about, right? Yet I feel bothered and ill-at-ease. I suppose you could say that’s the dis-ease of addiction?

Hell, even without those morning pills, I’d only have to sweat it out for less than a day. So what’s the big deal? Why sweat it? I agree entirely, it ain’t no big deal. But it ain’t my logical side that’s feeling funny, it’s my addict side, and that side don’t think straight.

Ok, enough of my minuscule problems. There’s a real problem out in Vancouver. Come December the safer injection site inSITE is going to have to close its doors unless the federal government extends its operating licence. Science certainly backs the efficacy of the inSITE. Many lives have been saved in the three years inSITE’s been operating. And many drug users have gone to treatment because the medical staff at the facility provided them with referrals, something they just wouldn’t get while shooting up in a back alley or in isolation in a rinky-dinky boarding house room.

But there’s an ideological war been declared by organizations like the Drug Prevention Network of Canada and the Institute on Global Drug Policy, both being little more than front groups for Drug Free America. And that side is waging a fierce propaganda campaign to try and deceive the public into thinking inSITE is a big, fat waste of taxpayer’s money.

I was glad to hear that the forces of compassion and harm reduction and evidence-based sensibilities won a similar ideological battles in Australia earlier this month, allowing a safer injection site in Sydney to remain open.

inSITE needs public support to win the struggle against those who want to shut it down. In order to stay open they’re going to need more than the stacks of scientific evidence that already shows its been doing a good job. That scientific evidence is known. But it alone won’t win this ideological battle. inSITE needs the voices of people telling the government that they support the facility.

How can you add your voice? Just go to Institute for Community Safety and click on the Show Your Support link. Then you can simply add your name to a pre-written email to the Prime Minister, or you can write an email that expresses your own passion and insight into the issue.

JUNKeLife

HaRdCOREhARMREdUCER
ArtCoreFromTheHardCore