FEAR OF POLICE COULD CRIMP DRUG SITE

Study raises doubts about use of safe-injection centre

VANCOUVER -- Just days before Canada's first government-regulated safe
drug-injection site is due to open, 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, which will be located in
the drug-ridden Downtown Eastside.

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,"
said the study's authors.

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 due to 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
Const. Sarah Bloor, a spokeswoman for the Vancouver Police Department.

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

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 traffic."

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," said Zanocco.

"We want people to feel comfortable in there, to get to 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 others across Canada.