SAFE INJECTION FACILITIES BACKED FOR DRUG USERS

TORONTO -- Safe injection rooms, where drug addicts can shoot up
under supervision using sterile needles and clean water, should be
set up in Canada, the Canadian Medical Association Journal suggests
in an editorial.

Research published today in the journal bolsters the argument,
pointing to the high cost of caring for injection drug users in
Vancouver's downtown eastside, the neighbourhood with the highest
concentration of drug users in the country.

"It will take a certain sang-froid to see this idea through," the
journal's editorial admits.

"But we can make the lives of people with drug addictions a little
better and neighbourhoods a little safer. Supervised injection rooms
are a logical next step, one that combines the merits of realism and
compassion."

Former injection drug user Earl Crow says the need in Vancouver is
staggering. "One wouldn't be enough," said Crow, 40, president of the
Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users.

"I could see them building six and still being overwhelmed. I'm
positive, I'm sure that people would use them."

The alleyways of the downtown eastside, which bisects the tourist
havens of Gastown and Chinatown, serve as outdoor shooting galleries.
Oblivious to the rats and garbage, human excrement and urine, addicts
shoot up in plain view.

"They're using puddled water to inject drugs," said Crow, who now
smokes the cocaine and heroin he consumes.

A staggering proportion of the drug users in the neighbourhood are
infected with HIV or hepatitis C or both, said Dr. Martin Schechter,
head of the long-running Vancouver Injection Drug Users Study.