Pubdate: Sat, 16 Jan 2016
Source: Prince George Citizen (CN BC)
Copyright: 2016 Prince George Citizen
Contact:  http://www.princegeorgecitizen.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/350
Author: Camille Bains
Page: 7
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?142 (Supervised Injection Sites)

HIV-AIDS PATIENTS EXEMPT FROM DRUG LAWS, INJECTION SITE APPROVED

VANCOUVER - Health Canada has granted approval for a second safe 
injection site in Vancouver - 14 years after the HIV-AIDS treatment 
facility began allowing patients to shoot up their own illicit drugs.

The Dr. Peter AIDS Foundation has run a safe-injection program since 
2002, and for several years mistakenly believed its patients were 
exempt from Canada's drug laws.

The approval of an application on Friday grants the Dr. Peter Centre 
a two-year licence, meaning patients can continue injecting their own 
drugs under the supervision of a nurse without anyone being charged 
under the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act.

"This decision by Health Canada experts was arrived at after a 
rigorous, evidence-based review that included an assessment of the 
centre's application, an inspection of the facility, and the 
establishment of terms and conditions to protect public health and 
safety," Health Minister Jane Philpott said in a statement.

She said international and Canadian evidence shows that 
safe-injection sites have the potential to save lives and improve 
health without increasing drug use and crime in surrounding areas.

The centre's executive director Maxine Davis said the exemption is a 
significant step forward for health care in Canada because supervised 
injection reduces the harms of drug use for addicts and prevents the 
spread of diseases such as hepatitis C from shared needles.

Several cities, including Montreal, Toronto, Ottawa and Thunder Bay, 
Ont., have contacted the centre for its expertise, Davis said.

"We've had visits from all of those cities and many other cities 
across the country that are moving along the path of conversation 
with their local municipalities on this matter," she said.

"They're interested in that integrated approach, not only for an 
opportunity for people to be supervised for injecting the drugs, but 
for a broad range of health care right there in the environment."

Davis said the centre has 350 patients in its day program and 63 per 
cent of the injection-drug users have had counselling.

Three patients at a time are allowed into a room where a nurse 
observes them injecting drugs and is ready to intervene in case of 
any overdoses, she said.

The centre's current application for exemption, filed in January 
2014, had broad support, including from the provincial government, 
the Vancouver Police Department and 150 local businesses that were 
grateful not to have HIV-AIDS patients injecting themselves on the 
streets, Davis said.

Insite, another safe-injection facility in Vancouver, allows any 
injection drug users to shoot up as a nurse observes. Its current 
one-year exemption licence will expire in March.

As North America's only such clinic, it opened in 2003 as part of a 
harm-reduction plan to tackle an epidemic of HIVAIDS and drug 
overdose deaths. But its existence remained tenuous under the 
previous federal government.

The Conservatives waged a long legal battle against the site but the 
Supreme Court of Canada ruled the facility could stay open because it 
provided addicts with needed health care.

Tiffany Atkins, a spokeswoman for Vancouver Coastal Health, which 
provides $4 million in funding for the Dr. Peter Centre, said the 
health authority submitted an application to Health Canada for both 
safe-injection sites in 2003.

"Both parties and Health Canada were under the impression that the 
exemption had been granted," she said.

"In 2006, when (Vancouver Coastal) applied for an exemption 
extension, it was determined that the initial Dr. Peter Centre 
exemption had never been fully processed. Some paperwork had been 
misplaced (by the health authority) and not processed."

British Columbia's Health Minister Terry Lake said the licence is 
"excellent news" for public health and safety because they prevent 
over dose deaths and have become a valued part of health services for 
HIV patients.

The Dr. Peter Centre is named after physician Dr. Peter Jepson-Jones, 
who was diagnosed with HIV-AIDS in 1985 and later shared his story on 
a weekly TV news segment that was nominated for an Academy Award.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom