CONSIDER DRUG SITES FOR ADDICTS: RCMP

Canada should undertake a nation-wide study on the merits of making safe
injection sites part of a comprehensive drug strategy, a senior RCMP
officer said Friday.

Robert Lesser, Chief Superintendent of the RCMP's Drug Enforcement Program,
said the cost of dealing with hepatitis C, HIV and AIDS infections, and
drug overdoses warrants taking a look at measures similar to those used
overseas.

"Certain European cities seem to be pleased with [safe injection sites] as
part of an integrated approach," he said, citing Frankfurt, Germany and
Zurich, Switzerland, as specific examples. "They've found that it's reduced
crime in the areas where safer injection sites exist."

Added Lesser: "[It] has to be part of a more comprehensive approach that
will include social services, employment assistance. We're talking about a
more integrated, a more holistic approach to safe-injection and intravenous
drug users. There is much more than just a room where people come in to
shoot up. There is medical staff on duty all the time. They're there for
the safety of injection drug users. In the event of an overdose, they're
trained to deal with that.

"We need to find out [if that would] apply equally well in Canada, would it
not work in Canada, or are there some made-in-Canada solutions that are
part of a comprehensive program. Right now there is really no evidence to
support at all or argue against [safe-injection sites] within the Canadian
context."

Lesser, who was interviewed after he proposed the study earlier Friday at a
national conference in Montreal on hepatitis C, also said drug users are
materially different than others involved in the drug trade.

"We're looking differently at the addict as we are

from the traffickers and importers and the producers," he said. "Taking
someone with small possession of heroin and putting them through the court
system is not going to respond to the issue."

Safe-injection sites are part of the harm reduction aspect of Vancouver
city council's "four-pillar" approach to dealing with the city's drug
problem, with the other pillars being treatment, prevention and
enforcement. The city's proposed plan calls for creation of a task force on
safe-injection sites and supports a medical experiment that would give
heroin to hard-core addicts.

Council is still receiving public views on the plan, having heard so far
from 36 of 90 listed speakers. The next meeting to discuss the issue will
be held at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday in council chambers at city hall.

Vancouver's Deputy Chief Constable Gary Greer is currently in Sweden
looking at harm reduction programs there and was unavailable to respond to
Lesser's comments, but city councillor Lynne Kennedy said she supported
looking at safe injection sites if it was done on a national level.

"We don't want to be the first city and the only city to to do this," she
said. "If it was to be happening in Vancouver, it should be happening in
other cities across the country."

Kennedy added that safe-injection sites should bring up the rear of
initiatives in any drug plan.

"No one's been recommending to us that we start there. You need to have lot
of things happening in your community first. We need to be really secure on
our funding for treatment, which we aren't at the present."

Another city councillor, Don Lee, echoed Kennedy's concerns.

"I don't think we can do it ourselves," he said. "It might tend to be some
kind of magnet. We may not just be serving our people, but serving people
coming from elsewhere, from Greater Vancouver, British Columbia or across
the country. That's why we have to somehow coordinate with the federal and
provincial governments and other regions as well to see if it's the kind of
thing we can actually support."