VICTORIA MAYOR WANTS 'DRUG CONSUMPTION SITES'

VICTORIA -- Victoria Mayor Alan Lowe is applying for an exemption to
Canada's drug laws to operate three supervised drug consumption
sites, based on a report released Tuesday that the city's addicts
need urgent help.

"We must do something to improve the current situation and we cannot
wait any longer," lead researcher Benedikt Fischer, of the Centre for
Addictions Research of B.C., said at a press conference. "It should
have happened yesterday."

The city will submit an application to Health Canada by December to
operate for three years, as a research project, multiple sites where
addicts can under supervision not only shoot up, but possibly smoke
and swallow drugs.

"We need to move forward with this to look at public order on the
streets and see how we can reach those most vulnerable on the
street," Lowe said.

One site would be downtown with the other two yet to be decided.

Greater Victoria is home to an estimated 2,000 injection drug users
and hundreds more pill poppers, crack smokers and crystal meth addicts.

The consumption sites are expected to prevent overdose deaths, slow
the spread of infectious disease, and curtail hospital emergency
visits. They would cost an estimated $1.2 million a year to operate.