USERS WARY OF POLICE PRESENCE, STUDY FINDS

Just days before Canada's first government-regulated safe
drug-injection site is due to open in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside, a
new study says the perception police will be lurking around the corner
could scare off users.

Ninety-two per cent of users interviewed for the study, published
Friday in the Canadian Medical Association Journal, said initially
they would be willing to use a safe-injection site.

But the number dropped significantly to 22 per cent when users were
specifically asked whether they would be willing to use a facility if
police were stationed near the entrance.

"The reduced willingness to use a safer injecting facility in the
event of a police presence near the entrance is particularly
worrisome," the study's authors said.

More than 450 active drug users living in Vancouver were interviewed
this year for the study.

The controversial safe-injection drug site is scheduled to have its
official opening on Monday but likely won't be accepting clients for a
few more days after that.

The increased police presence in the Downtown Eastside because of a
crackdown on the neighbourhood's open drug market could have a
"devastating" impact on addicts' willingness to use the new site, said
Dr. Thomas Kerr, the study's principal investigator.

There will be officers working in a four-block radius of the site,
said Constable Sarah Bloor, a spokeswoman for the Vancouver police
department.

"We don't want there to be trafficking outside the front door of the
facility," Bloor said.

Officers stationed in the neighbourhood will be "making their way by,
to make sure there aren't people openly trafficking or there isn't
street disorder occurring out front of the site, so people can have
free access and aren't accosted by people that are trying to traffick."

The safe-injection site, staffed by nurses and counsellors, will be
run as a pilot project where drug addicts will be allowed to shoot up
in a controlled location.

The project will be used to assess whether a harm-reduction strategy
can reduce the damage associated with illicit drug use, improve the
health of addicts, increase their use of health and social services,
and reduce the legal, social and health costs of drug use.

The newly published study also found certain Health Canada rules for
users at the site also reduced the number of willing users.

When asked about three restrictions -- mandatory registration, no
sharing of drugs and no assisted injection -- just 31 per cent of the
users said they would still be willing to use such a site.

It's understandable users might have reservations about using the site
at first, said a spokeswoman for the Vancouver Coastal Health Authority.

But Viviana Zanocco said she expects those concerns will be overcome
with time and familiarity.

"I think again what a lot of people might believe is, there might be
someone [at the site] who might tell them they have to quit or
identify them to police," Zanocco said.

"We want people to feel comfortable in there, to get to the know the
staff, to feel safe there."

Mandatory registration simply requires a user to write down their
first name, she said.

While safe-injection sites are currently being used in some European
countries such as the Netherlands, Vancouver has been widely regarded
as a test city for other cities across Canada and the United States.