INJECTION SITE NOT LURING NEW USERS, STUDY FINDS

Interviews Reveal That Those Using The Facility Are Long-Time Addicts

VANCOUVER - A new study done by researchers at the B.C. Centre for
Excellence in HIV/AIDS and the University of B.C. says Vancouver's
safe-injection site does not encourage people to begin using drugs.

Dr. Thomas Kerr, a professor of medicine at UBC and the principal
investigator of scientific evaluation of the site, says researchers
interviewed 1,000 people who had used the site during the past three
years, and found that on average, they had already been injecting
drugs for 15 years.

"There was only one person we talked to who said he performed his
first injection at the site," said Kerr, who will present the
evidence today at the International AIDS Conference in Toronto. "But
when we questioned him further, he said he had been smoking crack for
several years and had lied to operators [about injecting before] when
he entered the site, because you're not supposed to do your first
injection there.

"What that means is that it's not attracting new [drug] initiates.

"No one expected it to, to be honest with you, but it's still a
question that was important to answer because we keep hearing
rhetoric that this is a moral issue because it somehow encourages
drug use. But the science shows it doesn't."

Making public this research is the latest attempt by Kerr and his
colleagues to convince the federal government to allow the site,
North America's first and only safe-injection site, to continue
operating under an exemption to Canada's narcotics law.

The site, known as Insite, is due to close Sept. 12 unless Prime
Minister Stephen Harper and Health Minister Tony Clement decide to
extend that permit.

Spokesmen at Health Canada have been unable to say when a decision
will be made -- even whether it will be made before Sept. 12.

Reporters in Toronto were to have had a chance to question Clement
directly at a news conference in Toronto on Monday. But Clement
postponed the conference shortly before it was due to begin. Harper
is not in Toronto.

No clear explanation was given for the delay, though a spokesman for
Clement said it was not related to deliberations over the future of
the safe injection site. The spokesman, Erik Waddell, said the delay
was because Clement and Josee Verner, minister for international
cooperation, are working to craft "the best announcement possible" to
present to the enormous international gathering of AIDS scientists
and activists.

But people involved in the project, including the director of the
B.C. Centre of Excellence for HIV/AIDS, expressed concern about
Clement's no-show, and about how long it has taken the Conservative
government to announce whether it will extend the site's legal exemption.

"I can only hope the evidence will drive this public health decision
and that this is not going to become a political punching ball or
ultimately the decision be influenced by biases, beliefs or moral
issues that have nothing to do [with it] when it comes to a decision
of this magnitude," said Dr. Julio Montaner, head of the B.C. centre
and an internationally renowned AIDS researcher.

Kerr also said research shows the number of people who enrolled in
detox programs increased 33 per cent six months after the site opened.

Six months before it opened, eight per cent of Downtown Eastside drug
users questioned by researchers said they had enrolled in detox
programs. A year later, when researchers conducted a similar survey,
the number had doubled to 16 per cent.

But Kerr said other factors may have influenced their decision in
addition to the injection site, which is why, he said, "when you do a
more scientific analysis of the numbers, it's 33 per cent."