Pubdate: Tue, 21 Nov 2006 Source: Montreal Gazette (CN QU) Copyright: 2006 The Gazette, a division of Southam Inc. Contact: http://www.canada.com/montreal/montrealgazette/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/274 Author: Peter O'Neil, CanWest News Service Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?142 (Supervised Injection Sites) INJECTION-SITE OPPOSITION FLAWED: REPORT The federal government is using flimsy evidence to justify its opposition to Canada's only safe-injection site for drug addicts, according to a new report being published today. If Prime Minister Stephen Harper eventually shuts the site in Vancouver, scientific evidence suggests "a high potential for negative impacts on health and the community," according to the report in the Canadian Medical Association Journal. The government, voicing doubts about the project's usefulness, announced in September it would only extend the facility's permission to legally operate until Dec. 31 next year. Health Canada officials, as well as the B.C. government, supported its extension until 2009. Health Minister Tony Clement's news release said "initial research has raised new questions" about the site, including whether it lowers drug use and fights addiction. However, the report, by the B.C. Centre for Excellence in HIV-AIDS, says Clement and police groups are expressing doubt about the site "without providing any data (suggesting) the facility has been unsuccessful." Peer-reviewed research work to date has shown only positive outcomes, the authors state: About 5,000 individual addicts used the site, where nurses provided safe, clean needles and assist when there are overdoses, in the first year after it opened in September 2003. (The total has since increased to 7,410, co-author Thomas Kerr said yesterday. He noted that the site, with just 12 injection stalls, can accommodate only five to 10 per cent of the injections occurring in the neighbourhood.) The usage indicates the project has been successful in attracting the targeted users who are likely to be HIV-positive, are prone to overdoses, and "likely" to inject in public. "Large reductions" have been made in public drug use, publicly discarded syringes and syringe-sharing since the site opened. Addicts using the site are more likely to enter detoxification programs. The facility has not caused an increase in drug dealing in the immediate area, even though addicts bring in their own heroin, cocaine or other drugs. There was an average of 1.3 overdoses for every 1,000 injections, but no overdose-related deaths, since it opened. "In summary, the evaluations of the Vancouver safer-injecting facility have documented a large number of health and community benefits, and there has been no indication of community or health-related harms," the report concludes. - --- MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman