ABBOTSFORD MAY BAN NEEDLE SITES

A Public Hearing On The Bylaw Amendment Is Slated For May 16

ABBOTSFORD - Abbotsford city councillors are contemplating a plan to ban
safe-injection sites, methadone clinics and needle exchanges in their city,
saying they don't think such services are the best way to deal with drug
addiction.

Councillors voted unanimously Monday to proceed with plans to amend a
zoning bylaw to prohibit such services. The plan would also prohibit
facilities that produce or distribute marijuana for medicinal purposes.

The bylaw amendment, which received first reading Monday, still must go
before a public hearing, slated for May 16, then to second and third
readings by city council.

Abbotsford is heading in the opposite direction of Vancouver, where
harm-reduction initiatives have included a pioneering safe-injection site,
established in 2003. Its supporters say it has cleaned up the streets,
saved lives and helped control how drugs are being used.

"We have not seen any conclusive evidence that harm reduction has been
successful," said Grant Acheson, the city's director of development
services who submitted the proposal to council.

While the city has not commissioned any studies on the effectiveness of
harm reduction methods, Acheson said in an interview Thursday there are
studies available that go one way or the other.

There's just one facility distributing methadone in Abbotsford; there are
no safe injection or needle exchange sites, nor has there been much of a
demand from groups applying to have them, Acheson said.

Deputy mayor Patricia Ross said councillors' attitudes were swayed by tours
of needle-exchange sites in other jurisdictions, as well as listening to
nearby business owners and especially drug addicts.

"Those very people are telling us, 'Don't do it [start harm reduction
services]; it will not get us off drugs,' " she said in an interview.

Ross said addicts are crying out for detoxification centres, which she says
the provincial government should be providing rather than financing the
needle-exchange and safe-injection sites that she described as "Band-Aid"
measures that encourage drug use.

"It seems we are letting the provincial government off the hook here. What
we really need desperately is a detox centre and we are not getting it."

She said Abbotsford, the fifth largest city in British Columbia with a
population of about 130,000, is experiencing the same crime and drug abuse
levels as other cities of its size.

"It's safe to say it's a pretty big problem wherever you go."

Jay Teichroeb, Abbotsford's economic development manager, said local public
discussion on the issue goes back to when the Four Pillars drug strategy --
harm reduction, prevention, treatment and enforcement -- was introduced in
Vancouver.

Abbotsford's council has consistently rejected safe-injection sites as part
of this approach, and in January, it resolved to tell the Federation of
Canadian Municipalities and the Union of B.C. Municipalities that it is
strongly opposed to any type of harm-reduction program.

A motion then by Coun. Simon Gibson said each local government should be
permitted to make decisions on drug strategies with autonomy.

However, Fraser Health Authority medical health officer Dr. Gillian
Arsenault, who supports injection sites and needle exchanges, believes
every community in B.C. needs to provide harm-reduction strategies as a
component of tackling drug abuse.

"Once addicted, one often needs help to stop," she said in an interview.

It's important to provide facilities that prevent addicts from getting and
spreading diseases like HIV/Aids through sharing of needles, Arsenault said.

She said Vancouver's safe-injection site, although small, is yielding
positive results. "Which I think is amazing considering what a large
problem there is."