DECISION ON SAFE INJECTION SITE DELAYED

16-Month Reprieve

VICTORIA - Health Minister Tony Clement said yesterday any decision
on the future of the Vancouver safe drug injection site has been put
off until Dec. 31, 2007, a move that will keep the site open for
another 16 months.

In a written statement, Mr. Clement said during that time additional
studies will be conducted into how supervised injection sites affect
crime, prevention and treatment.

"Do safe injection sites contribute to lowering drug use and fighting
addiction? Right now the only thing the research to date has proven
conclusively is drug addicts need more help to get off drugs," the
Health Minister said.

"Given the need for more facts, I am unable to approve the current
request to extend the Vancouver site for another 3 1/2 years," he said.

Canadian police officers are urging the federal government to cut all
funding to the Vancouver site, which they say is a failed experiment
that has displaced crime and has only given junkies a sense of entitlement.

Delegates to the Canadian Police Association convention in Victoria
unanimously passed a resolution yesterday urging the government to
"cease all financing of the supervised injection site program and
invest in a national drug strategy to combat drug addiction which
includes education, prevention and treatment."

At the Vancouver site in the city's gritty Downtown Eastside, drug
users are provided clean equipment and supervised by medical
personnel as they inject cocaine or heroin in an effort to combat the
spread of HIV/AIDS and to prevent overdoses.

A three-year exemption from the federal government that allows the
illegal drug use at the Vancouver injection site expires on Sept. 12.

Victoria Mayor Alan Lowe, with the support of his police chief, Paul
Battershill, has been lobbying for a similar site to be established
in that city.