Pubdate: Thu, 19 Feb 2009 Source: Ottawa Citizen (CN ON) Copyright: 2009 The Ottawa Citizen Contact: http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/letters.html Website: http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/326 Author: Geoffrey So Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v09/n173/a09.html DRUG INJECTION SITE HAS POSITIVE BENEFITS Re: Adding up damage done by drugs, Feb. 13. Columnist Kelly Egan asks whether Ottawa, a "city of symbols, tulips, and all that is clean" can remain as such with a supervised injection site. I am one who thinks so. Having attended last week's community forum on "open drug use" in Ottawa, I found that Ottawa Police Insp. Alain Bernard and Sgt. Uday Jaswal saw a gloomy future for such a facility in our city. Their primary arguments in opposing a supervised injection facility in Ottawa were that Insite, Canada's first such site in Vancouver, created a ghetto-ization of the neighbourhood surrounding it and that Insite was not effective because it is only accommodating the needs of five per cent of injection drug use in that area. The police did not provide evidence to substantiate the claims beyond citing remarks made between Vancouver police colleagues and personal observations. Readers are reminded that Vancouver's downtown eastside suffered from socioeconomic hardship, crime and drug problems long before the creation of Insite. Health Canada's expert advisory committee on supervised injection research, through a review of research, has stated that ghetto-ization does not occur with these safer injection facilities. This expert group also noted that there is substantive evidence to show decreases in public injecting and discarded syringes with Insite's opening. Second, the reason Insite is currently only able to meet the needs of five per cent of injection drug use in the downtown eastside is because it is a small facility, opened as a pilot project that operates at near capacity every day. Most clients come primarily to use drugs, however, one-fifth of visits are for support services such as counselling. An increase in sustained funding and expansion are necessary to ensure it is able to continue its valuable work. At the same forum, Dr. Lynne Leonard painted a different picture, one by numbers from Ottawa-based research suggesting the potential positive role of a supervised injection site in Ottawa, one that would keep our city healthy, clean and safe for the public to enjoy. Geoffrey So, Ottawa Data analyst. HIV and Hepatitis C Prevention Research Team, University of Ottawa - --- MAP posted-by: Larry Seguin