Pubdate: Thu, 09 Jan 2014
Source: McGill Daily, The (CN QU Edu)
Copyright: 2014 The McGill Daily
Contact:  http://www.mcgilldaily.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2638
Author: Jill Bachelder

SUPERVISED INJECTION SITES COME TO MONTREAL

Four Sites Will Help Reduce Infection, Overdose Among Drug
Users

It was announced in December 2013 that Montreal will soon be home to
four supervised injection sites. The sites will include three
permanent locations in already existing clinics across the city, as
well as one mobile clinic to serve the Montreal area.

The news comes after a decade-long struggle between the Canadian
federal government and the Quebec-based organizations that have been
advocating for supervised injection sites (SIS) in Montreal ever since
the first site, Insite Vancouver, was established in 2003.

SISs are places where injection-drug users can go to obtain clean
needles and dispose of used ones. Additionally, social workers and
on-site emergency medical attention are available to users if needed.
These sites are part of an approach known as harm reduction, which
involves programs that provide safe spaces and medical services for
drug users in a non-judgemental and non-coercive manner.

Since its inception, Insite has operated under an exemption to the
Controlled Drug and Substances Act, allowing it to legally provide
help to drug users.

Inspired by Insite, Montreal-based organizations, such as Association
pour la Defense des Droits et l'Inclusion des personnes qui Consomment
des drogues du Quebec (ADDICQ) and CACTUS Montreal, began campaigning
for SISs in 2003. However, they were unable to obtain the same
exemption that Insite was given, and thus had little hope of creating
the sites. In 2011, the Supreme Court ruled that Insite was a
necessary service, according to Sylvain Cote of ADDICQ, a
community-based organization that provides support for injection drug
users.

"It was a decision that said that Insite should be not only
implemented but continued as an essential service for drug addicts
that saves lives and that could prevent overdoses and HIV," said
Carole Morissette, public health doctor for Montreal Public Health.
"For us, in Montreal, that judgement was a real boost in this
situation and then gave us an opening." This decision fueled a huge
campaign for SISs in Montreal.

"We campaign," said Cote, "we did some protest[s], we wrote letters...we
demand to be included on the committee that was working on SISs, such
as the public health committee of Montreal."

Cote noted that such sites are important as they create services for
drug users that allow them to perform injections in a safe space,
dispose of their used needles properly, and obtain medical services if
needed. Both they and the surrounding community benefit, with lower
instances of both common diseases in users and drug usage in public.

"What we see is that [...] people who would use the safer injection
sites are people who have no place to go to inject themselves safely,"
said Amelie Panneton, community organizer with CACTUS Montreal.
"[This] means that usually they consume the drugs in the street, in
the public domain, which is dangerous for them because we know there
are lots and lots of overdoses in public spaces."

One important aspect of SISs is that they provide on-site access to
medical care and give users access to a social worker if they decide
that they want to stop using, or need support.

"We have lots of evaluations and research projects that can
demonstrate the efficacy of safer injection sites to prevent death to
prevent overdoses, and to prevent HIV [...] and that help drug users
to be related to the rest of the health network and have access to
other services they need," said Morissette.

"The main obstacle is from the Conservative government," said Cote,
"but public health departments from major cities [...] are really
supporting the idea." The federal government's policy on drug
prevention does not favour supervised injection sites, Cote noted.
They have instead chosen to focus more on increasing funding for law
enforcement and preventative education, while decreasing spending on
harm reduction. "They simply consider drugs as evil - people who use
drugs as criminals," Cote added.

Some opposed to SISs argue that sites like these promote illicit
behaviour and can lead to increases in crime and drug use in the area,
a major reason behind the Conservative tabling of Bill C-65 (also
known as the "Respect for Communities Act") this summer that sought to
make it harder to have such sites.

Panneton noted that the sites are awaiting the go-ahead for funding
from the Ministere de la Sante et des Services sociaux (MSSS), a
process whose length CACTUS cannot fully predict. Additionally, the
sites would have to receive an exception from the federal Controlled
Drugs and Substances Act, such as Insite did in Vancouver.

For organizations like CACTUS, the creation of these sites is a step
towards reducing the harm caused by illicit drug use in Montreal.
"We've been giving out material," said Panneton. "We've been doing
intervention with these people, trying the best we can. But we see
that we would really need a safe injection site to help even more,
that's why we find it really really important to have multiple sites
in Montreal."  
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MAP posted-by: Jo-D