INJECTION SITE NOT READY FOR ADDICTS

Reporters Tour East Hastings Site Before It Opens Next Week

It's not quite official, but North America's first supervised
safe-injection site for intravenous drug users is one step closer to opening.

Media were invited to tour the facility -- called Insite -- at 139 East
Hastings in the Downtown Eastside Monday but organizers won't say exactly
when it will open to Insite's first clients because they don't want
reporters following them inside.

All they will say is that it will be next week.

But when those clients do arrive, they will walk into a 1,200-square-foot
space painted stark white with a flat black ceiling and linoleum floor
designed to look like birch hardwood, and consisting of a reception room,
waiting area, injection room, nursing site and post-injection or "chill
out" room.

The over-all impression is clinical, but that is intentional, says
Vancouver Coastal Health Authority director Heather Hay.

"It's a balance between making it look like a health facility, and keeping
it relaxing enough to make people want to be here," she said.

The site will be open from 10 a.m. to 4 a.m. seven days as week.

There are two doors to the site, one leading in and one leading out. Both
will be kept locked at all times according to Health Canada regulations.

Anyone who wishes to use Insite will have to ring a buzzer and be admitted
by a receptionist. However, says Hay, anonymity and privacy will be ensured
whenever possible.

All the client need do to register is provide his or her initials and date
of birth. He or she also must sign a waiver of responsibility and say what
kind of drug he or she will be using (usually heroin or cocaine). But
that's all, says Hay. No medical or personal history will be sought before
the person is allowed to inject inside.

After the client has registered, he or she will be taken to a waiting room
where drug and alcohol counsellors will be available if the client wishes one.

"But only if he wants it," says Hay. "We won't be pushing anyone to do
anything."

On Monday, there was no furniture in the room -- only an overhead TV and
two donated paintings -- but chairs will be added soon, Hay said.

The injection room itself consists of two sinks -- users are expected to
wash their hands -- and 12 mirrored booths where they will inject themselves.

The mirrors are necessary, says Hay, to provide users with the assurance
that no one is spying on them behind their back.

Each addict will bring his or her own drugs into Insite, but once there,
they will be given a tray containing an alcohol swab, a vial of sterile
water, a clean syringe, a spoon, a rubber tourniquet and a "cooker" -- a
device for liquifying the drug.

When they're used, all the equipment will be disposed of in a special
hazardous waste treatment site.

Injections usually take 10 to 20 minutes, says Hay. Women often take longer
than men because their veins are smaller and more difficult to locate.

When the injection is complete the user will have the option of visiting a
nursing station where other medical needs can be attended to.

If not, he or she will be directed to the chill-out room where the user
will be assessed briefly before returning to the street.

That shouldn't take more than a few minutes, says Hay, who wants to make it
clear that "this is not a drop-in centre."

The project will cost taxpayers more than $4 million. Health Canada will
pay $1.5 million to support scientific research, while the provincial
health ministry will pay $2 million in operational costs, and a further
$1.2 million to renovate the site.

Dignitaries who attended the media tour called the occasion an "historic"
one, but promised at the same time that it is no quick fix to a complex
problem.

Said Mayor Larry Campbell: "We are never ever going to cure drug addiction.
But what we can do is help those who have an addiction to stay alive and
stay healthy."

He cited statistics that 37 people in Vancouver have died of drug overdoses
this year. In the last five years, 309 people have died of overdoses and
524 drug users have died of AIDS.

Federal Liberal MP Heddy Fry called it "an evaluative pilot project.

"We hope that what worked in Europe will work here. We need to be sure that
the things we hope will happen will happen here."

Although Insite is the first safe-injection site in North America, it is
not the first in the world. Twenty-seven other cities, most of them in
Europe, have had them for as many as 10 years.

"They all said it's the best thing they've ever done," said former mayor
Philip Owen who was said to have lost the support of the civic NPA party
prior to last year's election because of his support for such a site.

Owen said he didn't know if former NPA colleagues had changed their minds
about the site since then. "You'd better ask them," he said.

But he added: "The people who wanted to delay the opening and have another
study were all defeated."

Also in the crowd was Patsy Thorpe, whose 21-year-old daughter, Alexandra,
died of a drug overdose in July, 2002, after trying several times to kick
her heroin habit.

Thorpe, who lives in Quilchena, went to East Hastings Street to support of
the injection site.

"I honestly think if something like this had been here, Alex would have
come here instead of being up the street in a hotel room with two girls who
didn't know what to do when she overdosed."

Instead, Alex ended up dying in the intensive-care unit of St. Paul's hospital.

Thorpe said an injection site could have kept her alive until she was ready
to quit heroin.

"We used to talk about it and she never wanted to die," said Thorpe, who
struggled not to cry as she talked on the sidewalk in front of the
injection site, where camera crews, local residents and politicians mingled.

Most street people interviewed said they would use Insite because it was a
better place to inject drugs than on the street.

But some said its popularity would depend on the police presence at and
around the door.

Vancouver Police Chief Jamie Graham said while it was important to
recognize that many people "don't agree with the [safe-injection]
approach," police officers would not be inside Insite, nor would they
conduct any more than routine patrols of Hastings Street.

"We're going to give this site the best possible chance of success."

John Bursey said he would continue to do drugs in his own home where he
says it's safe. But, showing off a sore on his foot, he added that he may
come for the medical benefits.

John Philips said he would use it. "Why not? It's safe. People are shooting
up anyway."

Greg Dayton agreed. "Street people will definitely use it," he said.
"Anything like that can help."

"Just as long as there are no cops involved," said his friend, Neil Nelson.

The only problem Dayton had with Insite was its size. It may not be big enough.

"Down here you almost need an auditorium size," he said.