Pubdate: Wed, 11 Apr 2012
Source: Ottawa Sun (CN ON)
Copyright: 2012 Canoe Limited Partnership
Contact:  http://www.ottawasun.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/329
Author: Jonathan Jenkins
Referenced: Report of the Toronto and Ottawa Supervised Consumption 
Assessment Study, 2012: 
http://www.toscastudy.ca/TOSCA_Report_files/TOSCA%20report-web.pdf

REPORT RECOMMENDS SAFE INJECTION SITES FOR TORONTO, OTTAWA

TORONTO - Researchers are recommending supervised drug injection 
sites for Toronto and Ottawa.

A study - by St. Michael's Hospital and the University of Toronto - 
says the sites would improve the health of people who use drugs.

"Using multiple sources of data, we projected that supervised 
injection facilities would prevent HIV and hepatitis C infections," 
said Dr. Carol Strike with the University of Toronto.

The study, released Wednesday, recommends three facilities in Toronto 
and two in Ottawa but does not provide suggestions on specific locations.

The two cities were chosen because they are home to half of Ontario's 
drug users. Ottawa has the highest HIV rate in the province and 
Toronto has the largest number of drug users.

The four-year study was conducted by Toronto Drug Strategy to 
recommend whether the cities should follow Vancouver's path, where 
similar Insite facilities have been credited as having a positive 
impact on Vancouver's downtown eastside.

The study may mean Premier Dalton McGuinty will change his mind about 
safe injection sites.

"When it comes to this kind of thing, we'll rely on the advice we get 
from our people like the chief medical officer of health, and if the 
police have advice that they wish to offer, we'll pay attention to 
that, too," McGuinty said. "I'll be open to the best advice available."

That's much different from what McGuinty had to say in September -- 
at the height of a provincial election.

"It's not in our plan, it has never been in our plan, that's not our 
intention to have one of those sites in Ontario," McGuinty said at the time.

A safe injection site has operated in Vancouver since 2003. It 
operates on an exemption to federal drug laws and survived an attempt 
by the federal government to revoke that exemption, after the Supreme 
Court ruled in its favour.

Ontario Health Minister Deb Matthews released a statement shortly 
after the study came out saying the government was still not 
endorsing the idea here in Ontario.

"Experts continue to be divided on the value of the sites," Matthews' 
statement said. "We have no plans to pursue supervised sites at this time."

She did however, thank the researchers for the study and said the 
government would look at their results.

"We are always prepared to listen to good advice, and we make our 
decisions based on evidence," she said.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom