TWO DOWNTOWN LOCATIONS PROPOSED AS SAFE INJECTION SITES

Sites Could Be Open By This Summer If Approved

The Vancouver Coastal Health Authority says it wants to install Canada's
first safe injection sites at two downtown Vancouver locations.

In a 200-page proposal submitted to Health Canada, the authority named an
empty storefront at 135/139 East Hastings and the Dr. Peter Centre at 1056
Comox as specific sites.

However, while the East Hastings site, currently leased by the non-profit
Portland Hotel Society, would be open to drug users off the street, the Dr.
Peter site would be open only to patients being treated at the centre.

Health Canada will have 60 days to consider the proposal, which also has
been endorsed by the City of Vancouver, the Vancouver police department,
the B.C. Centre for Disease Control and the B.C. Centre for Excellence in
HIV/AIDS. If approval is given for the sites to open, they will be the
first safe injection sites for drug users anywhere in Canada.

The East Hastings site was chosen for its close proximity to IV drug users,
said Coastal Health Authority spokeswoman Viviana Zanocco.

"A facility needs to be placed where the need is greatest or it won't be
used. The need is greatest in the Hastings corridor," she said.

Approximately 75 per cent of all Dr. Peter Centre clients suffer some form
of addiction, and 35 per cent of them routinely inject street drugs.

What the authority is seeking is an exemption to Section 56 of the
Controlled Drug and Substances Act, which would permit it to supervise the
safe injection of drugs at the two sites.

If approval is given, Zanocco said, the sites could be open as early as
this summer.

The cost of operating them is estimated to be $2.7 million annually, she
said. That refers mainly to staff costs. The application details the number
and type of staff required, but Zanocco said that information is not being
made public now.

Who will pay for the program is also a question without an answer.

"All levels of government have declared their support," Zanocco said, "but
no one has stepped forward to pledge funding."

If the East Hastings site is open, it will allow IV drug users to inject
themselves under the supervision of health professionals and with clean
equipment. Drug counselling will be available if it is requested.

No drugs will be provided at either site.

"The biggest reason we're behind this as a harm-reduction strategy is that
we see so much HIV and hepatitis spread through dirty needles," Zanocco said.

Maxine Davis, executive director of the Dr. Peter Centre, said all the
centre's 150 registered patients have HIV/AIDS as well as a complex mixture
of other illnesses.