PANDORA NEEDLE SITE PUT ON HOLD

Proposed Relocation Outraged Parents; VIHA To Proceed With Building
Purchase

The Vancouver Island Health Authority is stepping back from its
controversial plan to put a needle exchange in the former St. John
Ambulance building at 941 Pandora Ave.

News of the proposed move provoked an outcry this week from nearby
residents and parents of students who attend school in the area, and
the VIHA board decided yesterday that the needle exchange will not
initially be part of health-care services at the building.

VIHA will go ahead with plans to buy the building, but will delay a
decision about the needle exchange until Victoria clarifies
"unresolved law and order issues" and extensive consultations are held
with the community, the Times Colonist has learned.

The decision came after meetings at the Victoria Conservatory of Music
and St. Andrew's Elementary School, where more than 200 worried
parents lashed out at the lack of community consultation and demanded
assurances that their children would be safe at a school half a block
from a needle exchange.

Most were worried that the open drug use and detritus of used needles
and human waste outside the Cormorant Street needle exchange would
move to Pandora.

Neighbours of the Cormorant needle exchange have voiced distress about
the turmoil the exchange has brought to their streets. Because of the
complaints, the needle exchange is being evicted and must leave by May
31.

Provided the almost-completed sale of the Pandora building goes
through, VIHA plans to put other medical services for the street
community there this summer.

The services include Assertive Community Treatment, or ACT, teams,
with doctors, nurses, social workers and police, a health-care clinic,
a base for street nurses and training space for doctors.

The area is already a hub for street people, as the Our Place drop-in
centre is next door.

However, the major question of what will happen when the Cormorant
Street needle exchange closes has not been answered.

Katrina Jensen, executive director of AIDS Vancouver Island, which
runs the needle exchange with VIHA funding, said other options are
under consideration, including increasing mobile needle exchange services.

But, AIDS Vancouver Island believes a fixed-site needle exchange is
essential, she said.

"We're working with VIHA to determine how it's going to look after May
31, but at the moment we don't have any plans for that," she said. "We
remain really committed to developing an integrated services model for
the needle exchange."

AIDS Vancouver Island does not have other sites in mind, Jensen
said.

The needle exchange provides clean needles for addicts and collects
used needles. The aim is to prevent the spread of AIDS and hepatitis C
and to reduce the number of needles discarded in public areas.

One of the big questions troubling the VIHA board is how police plan
to prevent the street chaos now seen outside the Cormorant Street site.

Interim Victoria police chief Bill Naughton said enforcement would be
easier physically at the Pandora building than Cormorant Street, and
the police department wants the needle exchange relocation to go ahead.

Officers attached to the Pandora building would have a mandate of
enforcement and public order, Naughton said.

Meanwhile, after presentations to Victoria council about the needle
exchange this week, staff have been asked to prepare a report
examining options.

The St. John building has appropriate zoning for a needle exchange,
but St. Andrew's parents are calling for bylaws making it illegal to
place a needle exchange in close proximity to an elementary school.