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'''Chronic Addiction Substitution Treatment''' (CAST) is a policy adopted by [[Vancouver City Council]] in 2007<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://council.vancouver.ca/20071002/documents/a4.pdf|title=Drug substitution and maintenance treatment|last=|first=|date=|website=Council. Vancouver|archive-url=|archive-date=|dead-url=|access-date=3 September 2017}}</ref> to reduce the harms of drug prohibition by providing substitutes to those with addictions.
#Redirect[[CAST (Chronic Addiction Substitution Treatment)]]

== Overview ==
CAST attempts to reduce the spread of disease, homelessness and crime, by replacing illegal opiates with [[methadone]], [[nicotine]] or other substitutes.

== History ==
Vancouver has a long history of innovation in drug treatment<ref>{{cite web|title=Vancouver combats heroin by giving its addicts the best smack in the world|url=https://www.pri.org/stories/2015-02-04/vancouver-combats-heroin-giving-its-addicts-best-smack-world|website=PRI world}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=Vancouver researchers find pain medication can work as treatment for severe heroin addiction|url=https://www.straight.com/news/671466/vancouver-researchers-find-pain-medication-can-work-treatment-severe-heroin-addiction|publisher=The Georgia Straight}}</ref>. The first Methadone Maintenance Treatment program was developed in Vancouver in 1959. For 15 years, Vancouver had the only supervised injection site in North America: [[Insite]].

CAST was developed by Mayor [[Sam Sullivan]] as a result of his experience with the overdose crisis of the 1990s. He formed an organization called Inner Change to advocate for and fund-raise<ref>{{cite web|title=Supports for addictions reaserch|url=http://giving.med.ubc.ca/support-for-addictions-research/|website=University of British Columbia}}</ref> for a research trial called SALOME <ref>{{cite web|title=SALOME|url=http://www.providencehealthcare.org/salome/faqs.html}}</ref>.

The policy was opposed by opposition Council members and narrowly passed with 6 to 5 votes even though it was unpopular with some in his core base<ref>{{cite news|title=Chronic Addiction Substitution Treatment (CAST)|url=http://www.pressreader.com/canada/vancouver-sun/20080614/281676840663494|publisher=Vancouver Sun}}</ref> and faced much opposition from the community.

The idea of giving heroin to heroin addicts is controversial<ref>{{cite web|title=Handing Heroin to Addicts|url=http://davidberner.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/DavidBerner-HandingHerointoAddicts.pdf|publisher=National Post}}</ref>. Nonetheless many otherwise "conservative" sectors have endorsed the plan<ref>{{cite web|title=Wait-are you sure we're talking about the same John Reynolds?|url=http://www.macleans.ca/politics/ottawa/wait-are-you-sure-were-talking-about-the-same-john-reynolds/|publisher=Macleans}}</ref>.

== Subsequent efforts ==
After Sullivan did not receive his party's endorsement to run for re-election, he focused on raising funds to implement the SALOME research trials<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://ahamedia.ca/category/sam-sullivan-former-mayor-of-vancouver/|title=Sam Sullivan speaks about SALOME|last=|first=|date=|work=AHA Media|access-date=4 September 2017|archive-url=|archive-date=|dead-url=}}</ref>. This proved that alternatives could be used for heroin. Despite the success of the research no program was instituted by the time the fentanyl crisis of late 2015 hit the province.

==References==
<references />



[[Category:Municipal government of Vancouver]]
[[Category:Drug rehabilitation]]

Revision as of 17:59, 26 November 2017

  1. RedirectCAST (Chronic Addiction Substitution Treatment)