CRACK ADDICTS DEMAND 'SAFE INHALATION' ROOM

VANCOUVER - A group of people addicted to crack cocaine marched to Health
Canada's office in downtown Vancouver on Tuesday, calling for the
establishment of a smoking room at the city's safe injection site.

Rob Morgan, who been smoking crack for six years, says an inhalation room
would get crack users like him off the streets.

"If we can get them in an inhalation room, we can get them inside out of
the harsh environments of the street," he says.

"And also we can give them an opportunity to get help - say if somebody
wanted to get off crack cocaine."

Morgan says his group wants something similar to the safe injection site
for heroin users, where people are given clean needles - and medical help
is nearby.

Some nurses say a safe inhalation room could provide the some of the same
benefits for crack users - and would help stop the spread of HIV and
hepatitis when people share pipes.

Vancouver Coastal Health Authority spokesperson Viviana Zanocco says when
Canada's first safe injection site was opened last year on the Downtown
Eastside, it included a space designated for that purpose.

She says the health authority plans to ask Health Canada for permission to
set up a "safe inhalation" room. That request is expected to be made within
a few weeks.

But she says that even if federal officials like the idea, they'll want to
see research, as well as evidence that the police are onside.

Health officials caution that all this will take time, and that it could be
at least a year before a safe inhalation site becomes a reality.