VICTORIA INJECTION SITE NEEDED: STUDY

It Would Save Up To 3,000 Hospital Visits Each Year

VICTORIA A supervised drug injection site in Victoria would cost
$1.2 million to operate, save up to $3 million in health-care costs,
and prevent the need for 3,000 hospital visits each year, according
to a new study.

Its results will form the basis of an application to Health Canada in
early spring for an exemption to Canada's drug laws to run a pilot
research project in Victoria, said the city's Mayor Alan Lowe.

Based on about 2,000 intravenous drug users, the study found that the
creation of a few small safe injection sites could prevent seven
overdose deaths annually, divert more than 1,110 emergency room
visits for a savings of $444,000, and reduce hospital admissions by
2,000 for a savings of $2.4 million.

Vancouver Island Health Authority's chief medical health officer
Richard Stanwick details the savings in what he calls a "very
preliminary" business case to be bolstered by a comprehensive study
underway at the Centre for Addictions Research B.C., led by illicit
drug researcher Benedikt Fischer.

In September, Health Canada put off making a final decision on
whether to extend Vancouver's supervised injection site, called
Insite, for another 3 1/2 years.

Health Minister Tony Clement said at the time additional studies must
be conducted into the impact of supervised injection sites. Insite
will remain open until Dec. 31, 2007 while further studies into its
effectiveness are done.

Victoria's mayor says that tells him the government needs to be
convinced of the case for supervised injection sites but he is not
overly discouraged by the government's unwillingness to embrace the concept.

"I'm hoping a research project of this kind would give the government
more information, the kind of information it needs," Lowe said.

If Victoria goes forward with the application, as is the plan, it
will likely be for the establishment of more than one drug injection
site in downtown Victoria, said Fischer.

Clement had only one big location -- Insite, located in Vancouver's
Downtown Eastside -- to consider, said Fischer. There have been
problems with that site given the high concentration of drug users in the area.

Victoria would propose "something very, very different" and therefore
its operation could be "attractive to Ottawa" to provide valuable
research information for other cities across Canada, Fischer said.
Montreal and Toronto are also interested in supervised injection sites.

While the federal Conservative government has not embraced supervised
injection sites, "I also know Clement is quite open to the principles
of public health," Fischer said.

The health-care case includes a reduction in overdose deaths,
HIV/AIDS and hepatitis C infection and transmission, and the threat
of dirty abandoned needles.

Supervised injection sites are part of a broad harm-reduction
strategy including a range of health, addiction, treatment and social services.

A supervised injection site "will protect our citizens as well as the
addicts -- we have to realize these people are sick," Lowe said. "If
someone has cancer, we want to find treatment. We have to treat drug
addiction in the same manner."