Pubdate: Sun,  2 Nov 2003
Source: Houston Chronicle (TX)
Copyright: 2003 Houston Chronicle Publishing Company Division, Hearst
Newspaper
Contact:  http://www.chron.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/198
Author:  Jeremy Hainsworth, Associated Press
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?142 (Safe Injecting Rooms)

LEGAL INJECTION SITE LAUDED BY DRUG USERS

Critics Say Trial Project Will Lead To More Abuse

VANCOUVER, British Columbia -- David Lands walked into the upscale office
building, checked in with the receptionist and headed inside -- to shoot
heroin and cocaine into his veins. The frail Lands was one of the first
addicts to use North America's only government-sponsored safe injection
site, which opened in September as a trial project in a seamy downtown
neighborhood known for junkies and prostitutes.

"They should have more places like this," Lands said, holding two peanut
butter and jelly sandwiches provided by the staff at the Insite clinic as he
recovered from his heroin and cocaine speedball. "You'd find less people in
the alleys that have overdosed."

Critics disagree, predicting that the provision of a legal place for addicts
to shoot up will only lead to more drug use. In the United States, John
Walters, director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy,
called Insite "state-sponsored suicide."

Those who are using the clinic believe the opposite.

Lands, a 32-year-old who has been addicted to heroin since 1997, said
junkies can end up injured or dead from robbers or overdosing when they use
drugs in alleys and other out-of-the-way spots.

"If you overdose, they help you here," he said. "Not in the alleys. They
don't care."

A 39-year-old construction worker, who identified himself only as Joe,
agreed Insite is safer.

"I was in an alley shooting up and two guys stuck a knife in my throat," he
said, describing a robbery of his drugs. "They would have killed me if I
hadn't given it up."

Similar clinics operate in Zurich, Switzerland; Frankfurt, Germany; and
Sydney, Australia. Canada's federal government has committed $1.2 million
for research during the one-year pilot project at Insite, while British
Columbia is paying $2.4 million.

Mayor Larry Campbell, a former police officer and coroner, won election last
year pledging to establish safe injection sites in Vancouver as part of a
"four pillar" drug policy involving treatment, prevention, harm reduction
and enforcement.

He says Insite is a vital part of efforts to reduce overdose deaths and the
spread of AIDS and hepatitis C and to provide health care to drug users.

The World Health Organization has singled out Vancouver for a high HIV
infection rate in a wealthy, Western city. According to the British Columbia
Center for Disease Control, more than 30 percent of the area's addicts are
infected with HIV or have full-blown AIDS, and the city already was handing
out needles to addicts in an anti-infection program. Joanne Csete, a
spokeswoman for Human Rights Watch, praised the opening of Insite as
essential to helping users avoid overdoses and infection while exposing them
to help toward kicking the habit.

"It's certainly a step forward," she said. "We hope they will continue to
respect this as a part of essential humane services for drug users."

The clinic is exempt from Canadian drug laws, allowing the addicts to
possess heroin and cocaine inside. Such an exemption can be made for medical
or scientific reasons, or if in the public interest.

Lands and Joe said Insite requires addicts to bring their own drugs. The
clinic provides a bowl containing a needle, a "cooker" and matches to heat
up the drugs, and an antiseptic swab.

Junkies using Insite's facilities have their backs to nurses when shooting
up, but they are monitored by mirrors in the 12 injection booths, the two
men said. Nurses show those who ask how to inject safely, but otherwise have
no direct role in the process, they said.

After injecting, users are monitored in a "chill-out room" -- where Lands
got his sandwiches -- before leaving. They also can get help if they want to
kick their habits.

Vivianna Zanocco, of the Vancouver Coastal Health Authority, which runs the
clinic with a local advocacy group, said smoking marijuana or crack cocaine
inside is prohibited.

She added that worries about drug dealers congregating around the site have
proved unfounded.

Police officers maintain a low profile outside, permitting addicts to enter
the clinic with their drugs.

"It is not the police intention to intervene or interfere with anyone
entering the site, unless there is a lawful reason to do so," Police Chief
Jamie Graham said.
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