Pubdate: Mon, 31 Mar 2008
Source: Victoria Times-Colonist (CN BC)
Copyright: 2008 Times Colonist
Contact:  http://www.canada.com/victoriatimescolonist/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/481
Author: Cindy E. Harnett
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?142 (Supervised Injection Sites)

EXPERTS RENEW CALL FOR VICTORIA INJECTION SITE

UVic Researcher And B.C. Health Officer Make Their Argument In Medical Journal

At a time when the issue of injection drugs is at one of its most 
controversial in Victoria, the province's health officer and a 
prominent drug expert are making renewed calls for a supervised 
consumption site in the city -- where addicts can inject and consume drugs.

"More so than ever before, it's probably time for concrete decisions 
and action on whether we want to take the step forward to at least 
try to make this happen," said University of Victoria addictions 
researcher Benedikt Fischer in an interview. "Every day that passes 
you have 2,000 people doing very unhealthy things to themselves and 
the community."

Fischer and B.C. Provincial Health Officer Dr. Perry Kendall will 
make their argument in a B.C. Medical Journal editorial to be 
published tomorrow. They say the sites are more critical in Victoria 
than ever before. Former Vancouver police chief Jamie Graham will 
write an accompanying editorial, from an enforcement point of view.

However, the step forward that needs to be taken now seems like two steps back.

Last April, Fischer co-authored a feasibility study, commissioned by 
the city and the Vancouver Island Health Authority, that recommended 
a few supervised drug consumption sites around the city. The 
recommendation was supported by B.C. Health Minister George Abbott, 
the Victoria Police Department and others.

Victoria Mayor Alan Lowe championed the report and said the city 
would apply to Health Canada for an exemption to federal drug laws to 
operate the sites as a research project. But the application was never made.

The mayor said the issue is now in the hands of the health authority. 
VIHA president Howard Waldner said it is following through, but that 
the VIHA board has asked for more information before it can make a decision.

"We're regressing in some ways, at the current time," Fischer said, 
of Victoria's complement of harm-reduction services and its move 
toward a supervised consumption site in the city.

Supervised consumption sites were first established in Europe about 
20 years ago, and now exist in about 15 countries, including 
Switzerland and Germany. North America's only site, called Insite, is 
located in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside.

The facility provides high-risk street drug users -- such as those 
who inject drugs or smoke crack cocaine -- with a protected 
environment to prevent overdoses and clean equipment. It also 
provides other support, including treatment referrals.

In Victoria, the sites have been identified as a way to bring drug 
users in off the street, and complement the city's needle exchange, 
which gives users new equipment but nowhere to inject their drugs.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom