OPERATORS SURPRISED BY POPULARITY OF INJECTION SITE

VANCOUVER -- Less than seven weeks after North America's first
legal supervised injection site opened its doors, the site's operators
say they are surprised by its early popularity.

On average, the site's nurses are supervising about 450 drug
injections per day. Since the site opened Sept. 21, they have
intervened in 25 overdoses.

"If those people (who overdosed) had been on the street or in a hotel,
obviously some of them would be dead," said Mark Townsend of the
Portland Hotel Society which runs the site in conjunction with the
Vancouver Coastal Health Authority.

Of the 25 people who have overdosed at the site, Townsend said at
least six of them would have died had they not been fixing under a
nurse's supervision.

In 2002, 49 people died of drug overdoses in Vancouver.

Before the site opened, there was a fear that addicts would be scared
away by the surveillance cameras and institutional atmosphere of the
space. The site's operators predicted it would take about six months
for drug users to become comfortable with the staff and the concept
but the service has proven so successful, Townsend said, some users
are having to wait to use one of the 12 fixing booths.

On its busiest day, Oct. 29, the site had 525 visits.

There is no official capacity at the site but both Townsend and
Viviana Zanocco, spokeswoman for the Vancouver Coastal Health
Authority, said 600 visits would be close to capacity.