OFFICIALS MAKE RENEWED CALLS FOR INJECTION SITE

Arguments Will Be Made In A B.C. Medical Journal Editorial

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
injection 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 to
try and 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
Tuesday.

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.

The only site in North America, called Insite, is located in the
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.