Pubdate: Fri, 15 Jun 2007 Source: Goldstream Gazette (Victoria, CN BC) Copyright: 2007 Goldstream News Gazette Contact: http://www.goldstreamgazette.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1291 Author: Thomas Winterhoff Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?137 (Needle Exchange) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?142 (Safe Injecting Rooms) CASH INJECTION NEEDED Mile Zero If you ask people living in the 800-block of Cormorant Street to describe how well they've been sleeping lately, many will answer with exasperated sighs or tight-lipped grimaces of frustration. The area is one of downtown Victoria's acknowledged "hot spots" of illegal drug activity and it's also home to the needle exchange operated by AIDS Vancouver Island. Despite the best efforts of AVI officials, city employees, neighbourhood associations and the police, drug-related activities and unwelcome nighttime noise extends for several blocks in every direction. The uneasy coexistence of drug users and nearby residents and businesses was one of the subjects discussed Monday night at a public meeting at City Hall. The goal was to establish a "good neighbour agreement" between AVI and other "stakeholders" in the area, including the Victoria Police Department, the North Park Neighbourhood Association, the City of Victoria and people who live and work in the area. The agreement was modelled on a policy already in place at the Our Place day shelter for homeless people. One fact that often gets lost in the ongoing debate about the needle exchange is that AVI provides many support services for people living with HIV/AIDS but who are not necessarily drug users. AVI officials see the needle exchange as just one crucial community resource to help reduce the spread of disease due to addicts using shared needles. The AVI office moved from Johnson Street to Cormorant Street in 2001, followed six months later by the needle exchange that was originally established in 1989. Ever since, critics have questioned whether such a facility should be located in a predominantly residential area. AVI has been searching for an alternative site in a more "appropriate" part of town for months, but a funding cut proposed by the Vancouver Island Health Authority doesn't leave many options. AVI communications co-ordinator Andrea Langlois says VIHA wants to reduce its annual contribution to AVI's three South Island facilities by 37.5 per cent as of March 2008. Last year, VIHA provided $1,248,496 (or 67 per cent) of AVI's $1,856,591 annual budget, with the rest of the money coming from grants, donations and fundraising efforts. The two groups are still negotiating, but if the cuts are approved, AVI would see over $468,000 disappear. The Victoria branch of AVI distributed about 830,000 new needles to 1,560 "active clients" through its Street Outreach Services in 2005-06. It claims a return rate of 97.3 per cent, although some of those needles may have come from other sources (e.g. street nurses or other public health agencies). AVI officials say they have simply outgrown the Cormorant Street site and need to find a larger location. In the meantime, they are striving to minimize problems associated with the needle exchange, including drug users exhibiting anti-social behaviour and sleeping on sidewalks and private property. Through the new good neighbour agreement, participants have pledged to "improve the safety and security of merchants, residents, workers and other citizens frequenting this neighbourhood," improve the area's physical appearance and address the behaviour of clients using the needle exchange, which operates seven days per week (primarily in the late afternoon and evening). Those are all worthwhile objectives, but aE" as several members of the public pointed out Monday night aE" VIHA and the provincial government need to do much more to address the core problem of drug abuse and the horrific physical, emotional and mental damage it causes. It is as much a public health issue as it is a criminal matter, but even if people are sympathetic to the plight of intravenous drug users, they don't want to see discarded drug paraphernalia in their neighbourhoods. AVI provides important support services for people living with HIV/AIDS, but the Cormorant Street facility is inadequate to properly handle the growing number of intravenous drug users who frequent the needle exchange. Staff members are struggling just to keep up. AVI volunteers and city employees do what they can to keep their neighbourhood free of discarded needles, but there's a limit to what they can do. Drug paraphernalia still litters nearby streets, even though city clean-up crews do a daily "sweep" of the area and will respond 24/7 to any complaint about needles on public property. The idea of a safe-injection site in Greater Victoria is still a political hot potato. One might argue that such an approach would seem to officially sanction illegal drug use, but that's not how most advocates see the situation. They recognize the reality that addicts will shoot up wherever and whenever they need to do so. A safe injection site would at least provide a relatively safe, clean and controlled environment for users to do what they're going to do anyway. One of the benefits would be that staff could provide users with information on available treatment options, education programs and referrals to emergency social services. It doesn't really matter where an enlarged and properly funded AVI facility is situated. Whether it stays in its present location or ends up elsewhere, there will inevitably be problems and people will undoubtedly complain about them. However, to allow AVI to continue operating as it does now is untenable. It deserves more funding, not less, and it's high time that VIHA and the provincial government woke up and took action. - --- MAP posted-by: Steve Heath