NURSE TO ADDICTS RECEIVES AWARD

The nurse who set up an unauthorized safe injection site for intravenous
drug users on Vancouver's seedy Downtown Eastside has been honoured with an
international human rights award.

Megan Oleson and Pivot Legal Society, also of Vancouver, are the joint
Canadian recipients of the 2004 Awards for Action on HIV/AIDS and Human
Rights presented by the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network and the New
York-based Human Rights Watch.

Several months prior to the September 2003 opening of a Health
Canada-approved safe injection site, Oleson opened an unauthorized site
which drew police scrutiny.

"Vancouver had waited for years for a safe injection site to finally open,"
Thomas Kerr, the network's Vancouver-based director of health policy and
research, said in a news release.

At the storefront site, Oleson supervised injections, taught drug users
safe practices and referred users to services they required.