INJECTION SITE PRESCRIBED AS WAY TO SAVE MILLIONS

A Few Small Sites In Victoria Could Prevent Seven Overdose Deaths A
Year, Report Says

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 document
obtained by the Times Colonist, the first of two studies to be used to
apply in the spring for a downtown pilot project.

Based on about 2,000 intravenous drug users, 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, according to the document obtained through a freedom of
information request.

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.

It is that study that 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 here, said Victoria Mayor Alan Lowe.

Health Canada put off making a final decision on whether to extend for
another 31/2 years Vancouver's supervised injection site called
Insite, in early September. Health Minister Tony Clement said at the
time additional studies must be conducted into the impact of
supervised injection sites.

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, in an
interview.

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 East Side -- 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 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."