Pubdate: Wed, 28 Apr 2004 Source: Victoria Times-Colonist (CN BC) Copyright: 2004 Times Colonist Contact: http://www.canada.com/victoria/timescolonist/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/481 Author: Malcolm Curtis FORUM STARTS DIALOGUE ON DRUG STRATEGY Vancouver's experience with a supervised drug injection site is the focus of a forum scheduled for Victoria City Hall tonight. The information session is the first in a series of community consultations over whether Victoria should establish its own facility to cope with drug users now shooting up on downtown streets. "I think there's a lot of support out there but there has to be a dialogue," Mayor Alan Lowe said Tuesday. Vancouver became the first community in North America to establish a safe injection site last September, when it received approval from Health Canada to launch a three-year trial program. The site is used by about 600 illegal drug users daily who previously injected drugs in the public areas of Vancouver's Downtown Eastside. Chris Buchner, manager of the site, is the keynote speaker for tonight's forum. Additional presentations will be made by officials from the Vancouver Police Department, the city of Vancouver, the B.C. Centre for Disease Control and Vancouver's Chinatown Revitalization Committee. Dr. Richard Stanwick, chief medical health officer for the Vancouver Island Health Authority, will moderate a question and answer session after the presentations. Last week Victoria council officially adopted a "harm reduction" approach to deal with the growing number of illegal drug users downtown. This is part of a four pillars strategy, used in Vancouver, that aims to reduce the harm done to people using illegal drugs, while also promoting drug abuse prevention, treatment and enforcement. An estimated 500 to 1,000 such users are injecting drugs openly in downtown Victoria, though only a relative handful -- Lowe said the number could be as few as a dozen -- are responsible for leaving needles scattered around streets and alleys. The city's needle exchange, pioneered in 1993 as the first of its kind in the country, ensures most users do not discard needles. The early indications from Vancouver's experience appear to be positive, although a formal report on the safe injection site's first six months is not expected for several weeks. However, the site only caters to an estimated fifth of the city's drug users, while initial indications suggest a similar facility could handle all of Victoria's drug users, Stanwick said during a meeting with the Times Colonist editorial board. City Police Chief Paul Battershill said he is "cautiously supportive" of an injection site. But he said this would not stop enforcement of drug dealing by police. Last year police began stepping up presence downtown by putting the plain-clothes drug squad in uniform, resulting in an increase in prosecutions against street dealers. - --- MAP posted-by: Keith Brilhart