VANCOUVER DRUG ADDICTS TO GET SAFE-INJECTION SITE

Health Canada Picks Downtown Eastside For Pilot Project

VANCOUVER -- The first legally approved safe-injection site for drug users
in North America got the go-ahead from Health Canada Tuesday for a
three-year trial in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside.

The federal government is kicking in $1.5 million to cover the cost of a
scientific evaluation of the pilot run by the Vancouver Coastal Health
Authority, which will likely begin operating in September.

The news produced quiet jubilation. Vancouver Mayor Larry Campbell beamed as
he announced the news to his councillors, many of whom stood and applauded
in what was clearly an emotional moment.

"Everybody in here should take pride in this. We are the first in Canada,
the first in North America," said Campbell.

The battle over drug policy and safe-injection sites produced a political
storm in Vancouver last year. Campbell and his Coalition of Progressive
Electors council swept to power in November in large part because of their
promise to campaign for injection sites -- something that several European
cities and Sydney, Australia, have tried and found effective -- and other
new solutions to the city's drug-addiction problems.

Injection sites have been championed by health advocates as an effective
strategy to lower overdose deaths and infection rates among drug users,
while encouraging them to take better care of themselves without insisting
they quit using drugs immediately.

The exemption to the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act "basically allows
somebody to take their own drugs, cocaine or heroin, into the site and
inject it for their own use and they won't face the prospect of arrest,"
said Viviana Zanocco, spokeswoman for the Vancouver Coastal Health
Authority.

Zanocco said health authorities across Canada and North America will be
watching to see how well the project does.

"Montreal has been thinking of applying; I know Victoria has looked at it. I
don't know how close they are to considering going this route but certainly
a number of health authorities are looking to see how it works out here
before they would apply themselves," she said.

The Vancouver mayor had come under frequent attack in recent months because
the site hadn't opened, in spite of his campaign promise that it would be
open Jan. 1, while police started a crackdown on the Downtown Eastside's
open drug market -- a move that made it look as though Vancouver's attempt
at a new drug policy was turning into just the same old "war on drugs."

Campbell said he expects the site will open in early September, once
construction started by the health authority, which started last month, is
finished.

"We're trying to lower the infection rate, the overdose rate, just really
connect with IV (intravenous) drug users and improve health outcomes and
implement some harm reduction," said Zanocco.

The site will be on East Hastings. The $1.2 million tab for the renovation
work is being paid by the province.

But the health authority hasn't yet secured the $2 million a year it needs
to operate the site. Zanocco said several applications for operating money
have been filed and are likely to be approved now that the authority has the
go-ahead from Health Canada.

The health authority has applied for operational funding through the federal
drug strategy, a fund of about $800 million set aside by Ottawa about two
years ago. An application has also been filed with the Vancouver Agreement,
a joint project of three levels of government aimed at improving the
Downtown Eastside.

Recent statistics show there are about 4,700 injection drug users in the
area.