Pubdate: Mon, 08 Aug 2005
Source: Victoria Times-Colonist (CN BC)
Copyright: 2005 Times Colonist
Contact:  http://www.canada.com/victoria/timescolonist/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/481
Author: Chris Mason
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/hr.htm (Harm Reduction)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?142 (Safe Injecting Rooms)
Note: Chris Mason is a Times Colonist reporter.

TIME FOR ACTION ON OUR DRUG PROBLEM

Victoria Needs To Decide Whether A Safe-Injection Site Is The Best Alternative

Not long ago, I spent a Sunday afternoon with the needle-exchange service 
that is run out of a van by volunteers with the Society of Living 
Intravenous Drug Users (or "SOLID"). We sat on a stone wall on Pandora 
Avenue while people came shuffling along to pick up clean needles and chat 
over hand-rolled cigarettes.

The message was blunt -- Victoria's needle-drug users are dying and 
something needs to be done about it. Now.

Two weeks later, I spent a Tuesday evening with about 90 residents who 
ambled into a church basement to see a presentation by Mayor Alan Lowe and 
the Island's chief medical health officer, Dr. Richard Stanwick. The tone 
was the same in the church basement as it was on the stone wall -- one of 
immediacy. But the message was different.

Instead of discussing what type of facility our community is willing to 
support, the presentation focused on ideas we could consider using to deal 
with the problem here in Victoria. Ideas are great during the infancy of a 
controversial topic such as treating needle-drug addictions. But two years 
into the process we're still talking in abstract terms. By now we should at 
least know what services are going to be a part of this harm-reduction 
strategy.

The idea of opening a safe-injection site in Victoria is far and away the 
most controversial topic being considered. Because of that, audience 
members at these meetings need to see leadership on the issue to help 
understand the ups and downs that our leaders have learned about other 
cities that have built safe-injection sites.

Over a year ago, Lowe said he thought Victoria needed a safe-injection 
site. But at the July 19 meeting he said a safe-injection site is not 
necessarily what the city is looking at. This waffling on a controversial 
issue is confusing to anyone paying attention.

Several people have asked the mayor to clarify what sort of facility they 
are debating, particularly whether these meetings are being held to decide 
whether a safe-injection site should be part of the harm-reduction 
strategy. They have not received a clear answer. Lowe, city council and the 
Vancouver Island Health Authority need to show leadership and come forward 
with a tangible plan that residents can debate.

That plan needs to include what services a harm-reduction facility would 
include, where it would be located and how many clients it could serve. 
With that in hand, our city could have a real debate about what we need, or 
don't need. We could spend these meetings debating how to find the balance 
between what's best for needle-drug users and what's best for everyone else 
- -- if, indeed, there is a difference between the two.

Supporters of the safe-injection site say it will keep users alive longer 
so that they can see a doctor, stabilize their lives and eventually wean 
themselves off drugs.

Opponents argue that cities should not be facilitating needle-drug use, 
especially at a time when society is cracking down on perfectly legal 
activities like smoking.

This debate needs to happen now. Besides the need to find a new way to deal 
with needle-drug users, Victoria's city council unanimously supports the 
harm-reduction strategy. It endorsed the strategy more than a year ago. A 
municipal election is three months away, and although most councillors, 
including the mayor, are running for re-election, the dynamics could be 
different after the vote. It has taken nearly a year-and-a-half for council 
to reach this point. Let's not risk returning to square one.

The city needs to focus the debate, and get a true consensus from the 
city's residents about the harm-reduction strategy -- but particularly, the 
notion of a safe injection site.

If it is supported, Lowe and Stanwick will have tangible evidence to show 
the province and federal government that the public sees a need for a 
safe-injection site.

If it is defeated, then Lowe and Stanwick can refocus their efforts and 
approach the needle-drug crisis from another angle.

Either way, quickly helping the people who shuffled up to the needle 
exchange van on Pandora Avenue that Sunday afternoon needs to be the priority.

For that to happen, this process needs to move faster than it is now, or 
we'll still be sitting in church basements years from now wondering how 
Victoria's needle drug problem became an epidemic.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Beth