EXPERTS RENEW CALL FOR VICTORIA INJECTION SITE

UVic Researcher And B.C. Health Officer Make Their Argument In Medical Journal

At a time when the issue of injection drugs is at one of its most
controversial in Victoria, the province's health officer and a
prominent drug expert are making renewed calls for a supervised
consumption site in the city -- where addicts can inject and consume drugs.

"More so than ever before, it's probably time for concrete decisions
and action on whether we want to take the step forward to at least
try to make this happen," said University of Victoria addictions
researcher Benedikt Fischer in an interview. "Every day that passes
you have 2,000 people doing very unhealthy things to themselves and
the community."

Fischer and B.C. Provincial Health Officer Dr. Perry Kendall will
make their argument in a B.C. Medical Journal editorial to be
published tomorrow. They say the sites are more critical in Victoria
than ever before. Former Vancouver police chief Jamie Graham will
write an accompanying editorial, from an enforcement point of view.

However, the step forward that needs to be taken now seems like two steps back.

Last April, Fischer co-authored a feasibility study, commissioned by
the city and the Vancouver Island Health Authority, that recommended
a few supervised drug consumption sites around the city. The
recommendation was supported by B.C. Health Minister George Abbott,
the Victoria Police Department and others.

Victoria Mayor Alan Lowe championed the report and said the city
would apply to Health Canada for an exemption to federal drug laws to
operate the sites as a research project. But the application was never made.

The mayor said the issue is now in the hands of the health authority.
VIHA president Howard Waldner said it is following through, but that
the VIHA board has asked for more information before it can make a decision.

"We're regressing in some ways, at the current time," Fischer said,
of Victoria's complement of harm-reduction services and its move
toward a supervised consumption site in the city.

Supervised consumption sites were first established in Europe about
20 years ago, and now exist in about 15 countries, including
Switzerland and Germany. North America's only site, called Insite, is
located in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside.

The facility provides high-risk street drug users -- such as those
who inject drugs or smoke crack cocaine -- with a protected
environment to prevent overdoses and clean equipment. It also
provides other support, including treatment referrals.

In Victoria, the sites have been identified as a way to bring drug
users in off the street, and complement the city's needle exchange,
which gives users new equipment but nowhere to inject their drugs.