Vancouver’s progressive approach to drug addiction over the past 15 years is working, says a major report obtained exclusively by The Sun and based on comprehensive health and safety data.

Produced by scientists from the Urban Health Research Initiative of the B.C. Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS and the UBC Division of AIDS, the 2013 Drug Situation in Vancouver report to be released Monday shows liberal harm-reduction policies are effective at reducing illicit drug use and improving public safety.

In addition, the researchers have a study coming out in a top U.S. addiction journal that suggests the dramatic expansion of the needle-safety program in the Downtown Eastside led to a greater proportion of drug users turning away from injecting — from 0.4 per cent in 1996 to almost 50 per cent in recent years.

“The objective of this report is to make data accessible to a wide variety of stakeholders and to directly inform the City of Vancouver’s Four Pillars Drug Strategy, the Province of British Columbia’s response to illicit drug use, and the Canadian federal government’s National Anti-Drug Strategy,” the authors say.

Together, the report and the article establish the success of harm-reduction programs at connecting addicts to treatment and reducing the health risks, such as HIV transmission, associated with illicit drug use.

Overall, they imply investing in health care workers is far more effective than spending money on police and jail guards when it comes to combating and reducing the damage done by illegal drug use.

“In recent years, there seems to have been an overall decline in illicit drug use,” as a result of the harm-reduction approach, the report says, although that conclusion is difficult to ascertain with certainty.

“Overall, the prevalence of daily cocaine injection among persons who use drugs has dramatically decreased— from 38.1% in 1996 to 6.9% in 2011. As well, the proportion of (persons who use drugs) reporting daily heroin injection has declined over the years.”

In the teeth of federal opposition to harm-reduction programs and an escalating law-enforcement war on drugs, the research indicates that providing access to treatment and supervised injection sites is a better way of dealing with addiction.

Increased spending on law enforcement together with longer prison sentences has not made a difference in either the availability of illicit drugs or their price.

Although a large proportion of users in the city said they had beed jailed because of the federal tough-on-crime approach, the laws haven’t affected the supply — heroin still sells at $20 per 0.1 gram and cocaine, crack cocaine and crystal methamphetamine at $10 per 0.1 gram.

“The availability of these so-called ‘hard drugs’ is comparable to, and in some cases even greater than, the reported availability of marijuana,” the authors state.

“These data suggest that while programs and policies targeting infectious disease and overdose have been effective, few gains have been made in terms of reducing the supply of drugs. In addition, drug trends are shifting, with fewer (persons who use drugs) injecting illicit drugs and a larger proportion smoking crack cocaine.”