Pubdate: Wed, 30 Nov 2016
Source: Victoria News (CN BC)
Copyright: 2016 Black Press
Contact: http://www.vicnews.com/contact_us/
Website: http://www.vicnews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1267
Author: Kendra Wong

SUPPORT GROWING FOR SUPERVISED INJECTION SITES

When Marianne Alto walked into a public hearing at City Hall regarding
the proposed supervised injection sites, she was surprised by what she
heard.

A number of residents expressed support last week for the supervised
injection sites that many are seeing as a new tool to help reduce the
number of overdose deaths on Vancouver Island.

"Remarkably, the majority of people were very supportive, and I'll
confess, it was a surprise to me," said Alto, a city councillor.

"In the last 19 months to two years, the situation has become so dire
that people have moved from resistance to this as one solution to an
acceptance of the fact that this is a solution that's needed."

Earlier this month, Island Health announced its plan to establish
three supervised injection sites in Victoria - two public sites at 941
Pandora Ave. and at 2920 Bridge St. in Rock Bay, along with a third
private site at the former Central Care Home on Johnson Street, which
was set up to house former residents of tent city this summer.

As part of two drop-in public meetings last week, roughly 150
residents and local business owners showed up to learn more about the
project and voice their opinions, both for and against it.

Residents asked what Alto called "practical" questions, surrounding
how the injection site would work, security, hours of operation and
number of staff on site.

The issue of overdose deaths has plagued the province for months and
Victoria is not immune. There have been dozens of overdose deaths in
Victoria, five of which came in the last week, which prompted Island
Heath's chief medical officer Dr. Richard Stanwick to issue a public
warning when consuming illicit drugs.

It's an issue Stanwick believes the people of Victoria are quickly
coming to grips with and are beginning to realize a solution is needed.

"These events are occurring. It's a matter of us getting something up
and running," Stanwick said. "There's a bit of a sense of urgency of
are we rushing through this a little faster than we would normally
like, but people are dying and people are overdosing."

He noted some residents expressed concern about turning parts of the
community into unsafe places and questioned if Island Health could
replicate the success of Insite, the country's only supervised
injection site located in Vancouver. Stanwick said Island Health has
experience opening new services and balancing the needs of the
community, with its sobering centre on Pembroke Street in Victoria,
which was met with similar concerns.

Island Health will submit a proposal to Health Canada in the next few
months for approval.

Feedback on the proposed sites can still be provided by email  or through an online survey at
http://www.viha.ca/scs until Dec. 2.
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MAP posted-by: Matt