SAFE-INJECTION SITES NEAR REALITY IN VANCOUVER

Hard drug injection sites a health issue, experts to tell conference

People in chronic pain are now allowed to buy and sell marijuana, so people
severely addicted to hard drugs should be allowed to use them in supervised
injection sites, say legal experts who will be speaking at a conference in
Vancouver today.

"It's clearly a health issue," says John Conroy, an Abbotsfoed lawyer who
has become well-known for defending the right of people to grow,
distribute, and consume marijuana as a medical aid to prevent pain.

"Even if there are breaches of the law, given the nature of what is
happening, I don't see police and prosecutors investigating or charging
anyone. Even if they do, I don't see the courts taking action."

He said judges are routinely discharging or giving suspended sentences to
people who produce or use marijuana for medical reasons, and likely the
same would happen to people involved with injection sites.

David Mossop, a lawyer with Community Legal Assistance Society, said he
also believes there is a "good chance we may have safe-injection sites"
soon because the government may face charges that it is not providing equal
care to addicts for their disease as to people with other health problems.

The injection sites would have to be part of a larger health-treatment
centre, so that people could also be given help in trying to shake their
addiction, he said.

Conroy and Mossop, along with about 12 other speakers, are part of a
symposium being held to explore the legal issues around opening
safe-injection sites for cocaine and heroin addicts.

"Safe-injection sites have been on the public agenda for the last year, but
many people are under the assumption that this is absolutely against the
law," says Warren Obriain of AIDS Vancouver, one of several community
activists who have organized the conference.

The conference co-chaired by former B.C. chief coroner Larry Campbell, is
being held to advance the idea of injection sites. More than 200 people
have signed up for the conference, being held at the downtown campus of
Simon Fraser University.

Safe-injection sites have been established in a number of European cities,
generaly as part of a larger health network, but there are none in North
America. Vancouver has come closest, with considerable public debate about
them and a recommendation in the recently adopted city drug strategy that
proposes a task force to consider them.

Canada is also developing a national drug strategy, which, in the same
cautious language, has proposed looking at the "feasibility of setting up a
pilot project for a supervised site," says Cathy Airth, a coordinator of
the joint federal-provincial-territorial committee.

The idea of injection sites got general pubic support in a poll the city
did in February. But some community and business groups in the Downtown
Eastside remain fiercely opposed, saying that if they're set up there,
they'll attract more addicts to the area.

Many people also express personal reservations about injection sites,
saying they just encourage people to take illegal drugs.

But, Conroy says, they're forgetting that the point of injection sites is
to perform a medical service.

"People are so emotional, but the object is to prevent 400-500 deaths a year."