Pubdate: Fri, 23 Nov 2007
Source: Victoria Times-Colonist (CN BC)
Copyright: 2007 Times Colonist
Contact:  http://www.canada.com/victoriatimescolonist/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/481
Author: Cindy E. Harnett

NEEDLE EXCHANGE'S NEIGHBOURS DEMAND FACILITY'S RELOCATION

Victoria's controversial needle exchange must move. Any other 
solution by the health authority to clean up the operation won't 
work, say its neighbours.

"I think the injunction will move ahead in any event," said lawyer 
Danielle Topliss, one of several neighbours seeking to temporarily 
shut down the service.

"There is nothing that can be done in the present location," Topliss 
said. "It's an experiment that's turned into a tragedy."

Next week, the Vancouver Island Health Authority, which funds the 
needle exchange, is poised to present its $12,000 independent review 
of the service and offer solutions. AIDS Vancouver Island, which runs 
the needle exchange, has the report but won't comment on it.

The Cormorant Street needle exchange has sparked controversy because 
some of the homeless addicts loiter outside and leave behind a trail 
of dirty syringes, blood and human waste.

As a result, a few months ago, neighbours asked the court for a 
temporary injunction, which is still going through the application process.

Last month landlords Yentel Property Management Inc. slapped the 
needle exchange with a notice of complaint. They have demanded an end 
to the loitering and defacement of public and private property. If 
the issues can't be resolve this month, an eviction notice will be 
served which will become effective in May next year.

The review focused mainly on the services offered and whether they 
are being managed and operated in the best way possible for clients 
and the community, VIHA spokeswoman Suzanne Germain said.

But Topliss said the needle exchange needs a bigger facility -- 
something it requested earlier this year.

AIDS Vancouver Island said in a report in February that it needed 
$585,000 -- more than double its current operating budget -- for an 
approximately 3,000-square-foot building. That would accommodate a 
supervised 50-person drop-in centre, courtyard, toilets, showers, 
kitchen and counsellors' offices.

Meanwhile, bars and metal gates have been installed on many of the 
neighbourhood's doors and windows, but that has only made the 
loitering situation worse, Topliss said.

"They used to be the only areas of refuge [for clients]," Topliss 
said. "Now they are excluded from even those areas."

When staff from the needle exchange take a meal break or leave for 
the night, drug addicts with nowhere else to go take to the 
neighbourhood -- some sleep, some stumble about, others cause a disturbance.

Topliss supports Victoria's proposal for a supervised injection site, 
where addicts can inject or take their drugs in a controlled 
environment, but that requires an exemption from Canada's federal 
drug laws and the Conservative government thus far has indicated it 
is cool to the idea.

The majority of the needle exchange's neighbours want the agency to 
find a good home, said Topliss, but the current location is 
underfunded, is too small and too unworkable.
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MAP posted-by: Keith Brilhart