SAFE SITES COULD PREVENT OVERDOSE DEATHS

A startling 30-per-cent jump in drug overdose deaths in B.C. so far
this year has sparked renewed calls for a safe-injection site in Vancouver.

"It's absolutely appalling because these are preventable deaths," said
Bud Osborn, past director of the Vancouver/Richmond health board.

"It's time to bring these deaths to a stop. We know what to
do."

His comments came after B.C.'s chief coroner, Larry Campbell, reported
that 131 British Columbians died from drug overdoses in the first 51/2
months of the year. That's up from 96 deaths in the same Jan. 1-May 15
period last year.

Osborn said Germany, Switzerland, Holland, Spain and Australia all now
have safe-injection sites for intravenous drug users in their major
cities.

Osborn also advocates prescribing heroin as a health-based alternative
to law-enforcement's "disastrous" war on drugs.

Overdose deaths in B.C. shot from 39 a year in 1988 to 412 in
1998.

"We had a decrease in the number of heroin overdoses in the last few
years, but this year it seems to have gone right back up," said Dr.
Jeremy Etherington, head of emergency at St. Paul's Hospital in Vancouver.