SAFE INJECTION SITES HELP ADDICTS SURVIVE

Reports From Vancouver Are Positive, Yet Expansion Appears Most Unlikely

Sometimes old age has its compensations. Recently, during two bouts
of pain-ful illnesses, I had morphine made available to me "on demand."

As a person who, at first, resisted taking Tylenol 3 because it
included codeine, using morphine was a bit of a stretch. Fortunately,
I had doctors who did not shy away from this maligned relief for
pain. I have learned since that some doctors are reluctant to
prescribe morphine because they perceive it to be addictive.

I took morphine for approximately two months. As the pain subsided, I
gradually decreased my dosage. I stopped taking it in the middle of
December. I did not suffer any withdrawal symptoms from the morphine,
nor do I crave it now.

How different my experience from homeless people. Many of them are
mentally ill and/or are alcoholics. I took morphine to alleviate a
physical condition. Homeless people take drugs to alleviate the pain
of a mental distress. My physical distress has disappeared. The
mental distress of homeless people has not.

One way that our community can help homeless people is through
safe-injection sites.

A May 2007 study by the Centre for Addiction Research of B.C., a
University of Victoria research centre supported by a partnership
with four other major post-secondary institutions in the province
(University of B.C., Simon Fraser University, University of Northern
B.C., and Thompson Rivers University) recommended three smaller
supervised injection sites be created in Victoria. The concept is
supported by Victoria Mayor Alan Lowe and city council, Health
Minister George Abbott, B.C. Medical Health Officer Richard Stanwick,
and Victoria Police Deputy Chief Bill Naughton. The city has applied
to Health Canada for a three-year research project to operate these sites.

However, to allow this to happen, Prime Minister Stephen Harper and
federal Health Minister Tony Clement must grant an exemption to the
Controlled Drug and Substances Act.

The Downtown Eastside Vancouver safe-injection site was founded under
the former federal Liberal government. When Harper's Conservatives
formed a minority government, he immediately said he is not in favour
of this concept, which means that officially its mandate to operate
ended in December 2007, though it continues to operate with an extension.

If every federal initiative was monitored to the same extent that
this safe-injection site has been scrutinized, we would never endure
the kinds of scandals that plague some other federal programs.

The interim reports on the Vancouver safe-injection site are all
positive. (Visit the Vancouver Coast Health Authority website:
www.vch.ca/sis.) The deaths by overdose are reduced, the number of
hospital emergency room visits is reduced, the spread of infectious
diseases such as HIV is lessened, the numbers of users turning to
counselling has increased. All indicate that the safe-injection site
results are beneficial. According to the Vancouver Island Health
Authority, similar sites in Victoria are expected to save $2.8
million in health-care costs.

The sites help to take users off the street, provide access to
counselling and increase the use of the detox centres. Research shows
the sites help users to stabilize their lives, taking their first
steps toward decreased drug use.

Why, despite this hard evidence that safe-injection sites are cost
effective and assist users to change, do Harper and Clement
cavalierly reject this program?

Bernice Levitz Packford is a Victoria resident with a long interest
in social justice issues.