SAFE-INJECTION SITE EYES OUTDOOR GROWTH

Vancouver's InSite May Purchase Land So Recovering Addicts Could Tend Horses

VANCOUVER -- First there was InSite, then there was OnSite. Next up
could be OffSite. The Vancouver-based organization behind the city's
controversial supervised-injection site hopes to purchase a piece of
land where recovering hard-core addicts could take care of horses as
part of a long-term recovery program geared toward those using its
supervised-injection site and detox facilities.

The program would allow the city's most destitute addicts a chance to
recover in a supported environment, said Portland Hotel Society
spokesman Mark Townsend.

He sees it as a continuation of the drug-treatment spectrum of
InSite, which gives addicts a clean place to shoot up, and OnSite,
the detox facilities that lie upstairs.

"It's hard for them to access detox, hard for them to access
treatment and hard for them to access long-term treatment," Mr. Townsend said.

"We were interested in some kind of longer-term recovery that also
involved some kind of activity. ... This would be more the end type
of the continuum."

Whereas InSite gets people into the health-care system who wouldn't
otherwise be anywhere near a nurse, and OnSite gives them a safe,
convenient place to detoxify and get the drugs out of their systems,
OffSite would get those same hard-to-reach addicts a place where they
could be outside, work with animals like horses and take the time to
recover in a supported environment, Mr. Townsend said.

"We wanted it to be close, but not super close. ... We're trying to
make it accessible for the people we know and care about on the
ground," he said.

"Even if we could get one of our residents [at OnSite] clean in a
way, they don't have very much: They don't have anywhere to live,
they don't have much education, they don't have a family," he added.

Health Minister Tony Clement has strongly criticized the
supervised-injection site for allowing users to shoot up.

The federal government has launched an appeal of a B.C. Supreme Court
ruling that declared that federal drug laws preventing InSite from
operating are unconstitutional.

Studies published by the Society for the Study of Addiction have
shown InSite users are 30 per cent more likely to enroll in detox
than users injecting on the street, and OnSite's detox and
stabilization facilities are operating at capacity.

But their completion rates are low, and few people who do complete
the programs stay clean for long.

That's where OffSite would come in.

The facility would own some of its own horses and board others,
allowing patients to work with them.

Mr. Townsend said animal therapy can work well with people with
concurrent issues such as mental illnesses and drug addiction.

"People that have been hurt and damaged are often good with animals,"
Mr. Townsend said.

The facility would be "dry," with no drugs permitted save for
methadone and prescription drugs.

Patients would be allowed back if they relapsed but wanted to return.

The society has already scoped out potential locations, including
sites at the former Celtic Shipyards, which the Musqueam Indian Band
is developing along with Progressive Construction.

Mr. Townsend acknowledges it will be a tough sell persuading the
local community to accept a long-term recovery program for former addicts.

But a bigger challenge will be coming up with the cash required.

He estimates it will take at least $4-million to buy the land, set up
a facility and cover operating costs.