NEEDLE EXCHANGE TO GO MOBILE AFTER NEW ISLAND LOCATION
AXED

Service Has 'Nowhere Else To Go', Health Authority Says; An Expert
Warns The Move Will Spread Problems

VICTORIA I The Vancouver Island Health Authority's plan to provide
Victoria drug users with clean needles through a mobile service will
only drive drug users to other neighbourhoods and increase the
problem, says a drug expert from the University of Victoria.

"The bottom line of your problem -- in terms of health, social and
behavioural problems -- will in no way be smaller ... you'll have more
problems than less," said Benedikt Fischer at the university's Centre
for Addiction Research B.C.

The health authority announced last week it had backed off its plan to
move the needle exchange from Cormorant Street, where it is facing
eviction, to the St. John Ambulance building on Pandora Avenue. The
authority had faced outrage from parents at the nearby St. Andrew's
elementary school, who feared for the safety of their children and
complained about a lack of consultation.

But the authority said the decision left it with few options other
than make the exchange a mobile service.

"We have nowhere else to go," said health authority president Howard
Waldner.

The needle exchange is funded by the health authority and operated by
AIDS Vancouver Island. It serves about 1,500 drug addicts, and has
been increasingly controversial because users have been loitering
outside the Cormorant Street location in large groups, leaving dirty
syringes, blood and human waste.

AIDS Vancouver Island said it was trying to clean up the problem, but
needed a bigger space -- hence, the larger Pandora location.

The site was chosen because it's next to the newly built Our Place,
which offers transitional housing and programs for the homeless. The
St. John building would house about 50 health care and social service
providers, as well as the needle exchange.

Originally, the city of Victoria was behind the idea. Mayor Alan Lowe
said the city was giving the authority $100,000 toward the $2-million
purchase price of the St. John building -- but changed his opinion
last week, and "commended" the health authority's reversal.

Yet even some of the drug users on Cormorant street recognize it's
time for change. "People here are starting to get the idea they are
screwing things up for their peers," said one man, noting that a
number of addicts congregate in the Pandora Avenue location.

Katrina Jensen, executive director of AIDS Vancouver Island, is
hopeful that with further community consultation -- and improved plans
from her organization, the police and the health authority -- that the
Pandora Avenue location can still be considered.

"We'd like to see if there's a way we can figure out to deliver those
services in a way that might actually improve the problems in the
neighbourhood," Jensen said. "If there's a way for the community to
give us a chance ... that's basically what we want to do."

Provincial Health Officer Perry Kendall also believes that with proper
consulation, the authority could still locate the needle exchange on
Pandora Avenue.