CANADA OKS DRUG 'SITE'

MONTREAL - Canada's health ministry yesterday approved North America's
first sanctioned "safe injection site" for illegal drug users, a
controversial project in Vancouver that the Bush administration has called
"state-sponsored ... suicide."

The facility, to be located in the heart of the British Columbia port
city's drug- and crime-ridden Downtown Eastside neighborhood, will provide
a clinic-like setting where drug addicts can shoot up under the supervision
of a registered nurse in a facility that offers a legal safe zone for drug
users.

The aim of the program, which has been endorsed by Vancouver's police, is
to offer "injection supervision" to prevent overdoses, as well as provide
clean needles to reduce the spread of HIV, hepatitis, and other blood-borne
diseases epidemic among intravenous drug users.