GOVERNMENT SHOULD OPERATE INJECTION SITES, DOCTORS SAY

OTTAWA -- Government-run drug injection sites should be established in
Canada to improve the health of street addicts and make neighbourhoods
safer, the country's main association for doctors says.

"Supervised injection rooms are a logical next step, one that combines the
merits of realism and passion" the Canadian Medical Association said Monday
while publishing startling results from a two-year study of intravenous
drug users in Vancouver.

Drug-injection sites would provide a controlled environment where addicts
could obtain sterile needles and medical care as well as social services
and access to rehabilitation programs, the association said.

The Vancouver drug-use study found 27 per cent of addicts continued to
share needles despite the availability of a large-scale needle-exchange
program in the city.

In a two-year period, 440 of the 776 drug users who were analysed in the
study made 2,763 visits to hospital emergency departments. Further, 210 of
the participants were admitted to hospital for longer-term care 495 times.

"The most common reasons for emergency department visits were soft-tissue
infections and other problems related to illicit drug use, such as
overdose, intoxication and withdrawal," said Thomas Kerr, of the University
of Victoria, and Dr. Anita Palepu, of St. Paul's Hospital in Vancouver, in
the CMA report on the study.

"Most of the hospital admissions were the result of bacterial infections
related to drug injection; these cases might have been prevented if safe
injection techniques had been used," the two authors said.

The report said B.C. has the highest number of fatal drug overdoses in
Canada, with nearly five deaths for every 100,000 people annually. Illicit
drug use has become the leading cause of death among adults 30 to 49 years
of age.