ISLANDERS TOUR SAFE-NEEDLE SITES

Victoria Politicians Get Look at Insite, Dr. Peter Centre

VANCOUVER - A contingent of Victoria politicians toured Vancouver's
two safe-injection sites Friday in a search of answers to the
Vancouver Island city's street drug problems.

Rob Fleming, Victoria-Hillside NDP MLA, Dean Fortin, city councillor,
and Marianne Alto, a long-time HIV/AIDS policy developer and city
council candidate, visited the Insite facility on East Hastings
Street and the Dr. Peter Centre in the west end.

Both sites allow drug users to inject drugs in a supervised medical
setting with clean syringes, and both refer addicts to counselling services.

The fact-finding mission comes after a summer of public forums that
sparked debate on the size, shape, scope and location of a possible
Victoria safe-injection site.

"Our visit advances that knowledge," Fortin said. "It was important
to see how both sites involved an integration into a community, and
that's going to be important no matter where and how we put it in Victoria."

Insite, which inside looks like a high-end hair salon with brushed
metal, wood laminate and mood lighting, runs on a $2-million budget.

Research by the B.C. Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS suggests
Insite has reduced needle sharing among some of the most high-risk
drug users who suffer from HIV/AIDS. But critics say the research is
far from conclusive.

While Insite focuses solely on safe injection, the Dr. Peter Centre
has residential apartments where users can inject drugs, a safe
injection room run by registered nurses, a daycare service and
privately-funded music and massage rooms.

Both sites are two years into a three-year test period and receive
partial provincial and federal funding support, which Victoria would
seek as well, Fleming said.

"I was very impressed with both facilities," he said.

"What we probably need to do is to talk further with some of the
agencies that deal with this problem . . . and see how we could
introduce a service like this."

A Victoria solution may be "somewhere in-between" Insite and the Dr.
Peter Centre, Fortin said.

The city doesn't need the high capacity of a Downtown Eastside site,
nor the high budget of the Dr. Peter Centre, he said.

Victoria's next step will be developing a proposal for its own
custom-designed local facility to discuss with the Vancouver Island
Health Authority and the public, said Fortin.

The city's mayor, police chief, island health officer and provincial
health officer have said in the past they support the idea of some
sort of supervised injection site in Victoria.