SAFE INJECTION LEADS TO DETOX, STUDY FINDS

Frequent Visits To Counsellors Big Help

VANCOUVER -- The more a drug user visits Vancouver's experimental
supervised-injection site, the more likely that user is to go into
detox, suggests a study published Wednesday in the New England
Journal of Medicine.

"If you use the site at least weekly, you are two times as likely
than others to enter detox," said co-author Dr. Thomas Kerr from the
Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS Research.

"We weren't surprised that the site had resulted in less public
disorder or syringe sharing, but we were kind of astounded actually
that the more you use this facility, the more likely you are to enter
treatment."

Of 1,031 randomly selected repeat users of Insite, which is near the
city's notorious Main and Hastings intersection, 185 people --
approximately 18 per cent -- went into a detox program in a 15-month
period between December 2003 and March 2005.

Those who used the site weekly or saw one of the site's addictions
counsellors even once were twice as likely as other site users to go
into detox, according to the study. Kerr said the evidence appears to
run counter to some people's fears that having an injection site
would promote drug use and encourage people not to go into treatment.

"Our findings provide reassurance that supervised injection
facilities are unlikely to result in reduced use of
addiction-treatment services," the study says. The study didn't rely
on people's anecdotal evidence about whether they had sought
treatment or on the site's statistics about how many people they had
referred to detox.