ADDICTS GIVEN A HAND SHOOTING UP

Alleys Patrolled, Those Crippled Or Blinded By Drugs Offered Injections

Addicts crippled and blinded by drug use and too sick to shoot themselves
up are being helped by a volunteer team of users to get high safely.

Forty members of the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users will patrol the
Downtown Eastside offering injection education and assistance.

"Most of the stats show people who are incapable of injecting themselves or
have a hard time have the highest rate of HIV," said Diane Tobin, the new
- -- and first female -- president of the users' harm-reduction group.

The group, which is run by volunteers, has 12 members trained and walking
the alleys. Tobin said they hope to get a room where people can also come
to them.

"There's a huge need out there," said Tobin, who is back on heroin to deal
with withdrawal from methadone. "A lot of people can't inject because of
blindness, injury, stroke.

"They're still heroin addicts. They're at the mercy of anybody and a lot of
the time they don't use clean needles. It's whatever's in their pockets."

The problem of assisted injection was highlighted in a recent report from
the B.C. Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS that showed people who need help
injecting illicit drugs are twice as likely to become HIV infected. Women
and young injectors are also more likely than other injection drug users to
need help injecting.

The users' group is calling for a change in the law that prevents peers and
nurses in the city's sanctioned safe-injection site from helping people inject.

Health-care workers can only supervise and offer medical assistance if a
user hurts themselves and gets sick or overdoses. If nurses help an addict
shoot up, they could be charged with possession or trafficking.

Viviana Zanocco, of the Vancouver Coastal Health Authority, said the city's
safe-injection site steering committee will meet this month to discuss the
centre's study and "figure out a way to offer assistance" to addicts who
are too ill to inject safely.

Zanocco said there are ethical issues that could prevent nurses at the
safe-injection site from injecting addicts, because they don't know what
drugs are in the needles, and passing a needle to an addict could be
classified as trafficking.

Still, Zanocco said she thinks the group's injection team is offering a
valuable service.

"I think people are already addicted, and they're going to inject drugs.

"We just want to help them do it safely until they appeal to us to help
them get off drugs."