NEEDLE VAN A GOING CONCERN

Mobile Exchange Helping To Cut Spread Of Disease On A Shoestring Budget

Purple suckers are the preference in downtown Victoria -- along with
needles, wipes and cookers for mixing drugs.

"I need a bunch of cookers and some ones (needles)," said the woman,
detaching herself from a group of friends squatting in the corner of
a downtown parking lot and sauntering up to the slightly battered
burgundy van stuffed with syringes, sterile water, condoms, cookers
and alcohol swabs.

She added some alcohol wipes to her list and then her face lit up.

"Suckers. Can I have some purple ones?" she asked.

"You are deadly," she said happily as a volunteer scrabbled in the
bottom of the pail to come up with a couple of purple suckers.

"Everyone has a preference and it's usually red or purple," said
Victoria AIDS Resource and Community Service Society volunteer Ashley
Cowan, seeing nothing odd about handing out candy with needles.

The VARCS mobile needle exchange cruises downtown hangouts and takes
residential calls from all over Greater Victoria, Monday to Friday.

The demand for clean needles is huge and, with soaring gas prices,
the $36,000 a year budgeted for the mobile needle exchange is
stretched to the limit, said executive director Karen Dennis.

The mobile exchange is funded by the Vancouver Island Health
Authority and the city, but, next budget year, Victoria-based AIDS
organizations are facing a 30 per cent cut as VIHA redistributes
funding around Vancouver Island.

"We've had a $99,000 core budget for 10 years and clearly in that
time, the caseload has risen tenfold," said Dennis, who fears
services such as respite care, home visits or the mobile exchange
will have to be reduced.

Mobile X, which operates during daytime hours when the AIDS Vancouver
Island needle exchange on Cormorant Street is closed, already relies
heavily on volunteers.

"We go as far as Sidney and West Shore," said acting outreach
co-ordinator Barb Cavill, expertly navigating downtown streets while
keeping a watch for anyone trying to flag her down.

About 50 per cent of calls are residential and those people would
like to see the hours extended, Cavill said.

"It's really important that we meet their needs because they're often
people who are not able to access the Cormorant Street needle
exchange," she said.

The next call is to an Esquimalt apartment block where a slightly
nervous man motions the van around to an inconspicuous side area.

Privacy is a major concern, said Cavill, as she handed out large
numbers of syringes -- and purple suckers.

"Some people think we are encouraging people in their addictions, but
people are going to use, so our role is to help keep them safe and
our community safe," Cavill said.

Mobile exchanges avoid the problems of Cormorant Street, where
clients gather in the street and Victoria Deputy Police Chief Bill
Naughton would like to see more mobiles.

Ideally, Victoria should have several fixed sites and several mobiles, he said.

"We want to try to avoid a concentration of people," he said.

"It would also help if other municipalities would own up to having IV
drug users and take some responsibility."

AIDS Vancouver Island executive director Miki Hansen said the mobile
serves some clients well, but the fixed site is needed because of the
large caseload.

In 2005-06 about 2,000 clients used the needle exchange.

"We couldn't manage that volume with a mobile exchange," she said.

"Also, it would mean we couldn't spend time with people. When you're
doing a quick exchange out on the street, it's difficult to interact."

AVI has mobile exchanges in the Cowichan Valley and Port Hardy.

Drug-Use Facts

A 2005 Public Health Agency of Canada survey of intravenous drug
users, conducted in seven cities across the country, found high
infection rates were not stopping people from sharing needles. In
Victoria, 250 intravenous drug users volunteered to complete an
anonymous questionnaire. They then underwent a blood test.

Findings include:

- - One in 10 users was HIV positive and seven in 10 had hepatitis C.

- - One in four injection drug users infected with HIV or hep C did not
know they were infected.

- - Many infected users admitted to sharing their drug equipment.
Across the country, 14.5 per cent said they borrowed needles and one
third said they had passed drug injection equipment to others.

- - Almost 31 per cent said they had borrowed equipment such as cookers
and filters.