CITY INJECTS HOPE

Safe-Injection Site Will Offer Addicts A Route To Healthier Lives:

Mayor Larry Campbell believes today's official opening of North America's
first legal safe-injection site is a "significant moment" in the history of
Vancouver.

"I think it's a significant moment for the city and for the country," said
Campbell, B.C.'s former chief coroner.

"I believe that it's going to make a large difference in the lives of the
people who are addicted."

Hundreds of people have died of drug overdoses in the Downtown Eastside,
including 37 so far this year.

"I believe that this is going to significantly reduce [the number of drug
overdose deaths] and reduce the [spread of] HIV," said Campbell. "And
perhaps as importantly, it's going to give people who are addicted an
opportunity to get healthy and at least get treatment and be treated
responsibly."

There are safe-injection sites in about 50 cities around the world -- in
Germany, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Spain and Australia.

"It very much mirrors what I saw in Zurich," said Campbell. "In Switzerland
they exist literally in every large city. They're in Frankfurt, Amsterdam,

Australia. So this is not an unproven idea. It works."

The facility at 139 East Hastings St. has been approved by Health Canada as
a pilot project for three years.

Public-health workers and officials advocate safe-injection sites as a way
of reducing drug overdoses and the spread of HIV and hepatitis C.

Canadian Alliance MP Randy White is opposed to safe-injection sites.

"This is a false road to the solution to drugs," said White, vice-chairman
of the House of Commons Drug Committee. "It's not the way to get people off
of drugs. It's not harm reduction. It's harm extension."

Mike Larson, a former Downtown Eastside resident, believes the site will
help revive the neighbourhood.

"It's going to save lives," said Larson. "There's kids using dirty water
and dirty rigs on the street corners and back alleys. Things will be clean
and safe in there and there will be counsellors to advise those who decide
they want to get off drugs."

The Vancouver Coastal Health Authority and the Portland Community Services
Society will run the supervised site.

Although the official opening is today, the facility won't open to drug
addicts for about a week.

The site will open 18 hours a day for the 800 drug addicts expected to use
it. It will be staffed by 16 nurses, four alcohol and drug counsellors and
peer counsellors.

"We want people to feel comfortable in there, to get to know the staff, to
feel safe there," said Viviana Zanocco of the Coastal Health Authority.

The staff will "make sure they don't OD, they've got a clean needle, to
just kind of make a connection.

"And when the time comes that they want to go into treatment, we're there.
And they know who to contact. So when they're ready . . . we'll be there."

A study in the Canadian Medical Association Journal says bureaucracy and
the police may keep up to 80 per cent of needle drug users away.

The CMAJ study of 458 drug users in the Downtown Eastside found 92 per cent
would use the facility. But the number dropped to 31 per cent when users
were asked about three restrictions -- mandatory registration, no sharing
of drugs and no assisted injections.

It fell to 22 per cent when users were asked if they would be willing to
use the facility if police were stationed nearby.

Vancouver Const. Sarah Bloor said officers want the site to succeed but
need to police the area to keep drug traffickers away.