ARE SAFE INJECTION SITES COMING HERE?

That's Not Likely, Councillors Insist

But Opponents Keep Eye On Vancouver

If Toronto ever gets a safe drug injection site, neighbourhoods to
the east side of the city's downtown figure they'll be the likely hosts.

That's why - even though no one is yet advocating a site - the issue
is already percolating, and flavouring November's municipal election races.

Helping to bring matters to the boil is the report of a drug strategy
task force - largely adopted last December by Toronto council - that
called for a "needs assessment and feasibility study for supervised
(drug) consumption sites."

The study was a red flag for some downtown residents, who've been
concerned for years about cleaning up the pushers, prostitutes, used
needles and condoms that go with the drug trade.

A methadone clinic that opened a few months ago in the
King-Parliament area has already attracted addicts and pushers and
"caused havoc in the neighbourhood," says resident Linda Dixon.

"I can't imagine what it'll be like once we get a consumption site,"
says Dixon, who closely followed the drug task force. At one point
she dumped dozens of needles, tourniquets and crack pipes collected
from a schoolyard and park in her area on a committee room table, to
show the effect of the drug trade.

But local councillors insist the fears of supervised drug consumption
sites springing up in Toronto are overblown.

Attention has been focused on Vancouver's safe injection site, which
requires federal permission to remain open beyond Sept. 12. Prime
Minister Stephen Harper hasn't yet committed to grant the authority.

A spokesman for federal Health Minister Tony Clement said the
minister was still assessing the project.

The site, close to where the city's heroin addicts are concentrated,
receives 607 drug users a day. Its advocates cite a study published
in the Harm Reduction Journal estimating that, by preventing the
spread of disease and keeping addicts out of jail, the site has saved
taxpayers $8 million since it opened in 2003.

Councillor Kyle Rae, who led the drug strategy task force, has toured
safe injection sites in Amsterdam, Frankfurt and Madrid. While he's
watching what happens in Vancouver, Rae doubts Toronto will face a
similar quandary because its patterns of drug use are much different:
Toronto has fewer heroin users than Vancouver, and addicts are more
widely dispersed across the city.

"I'm really skeptical that a safe injection site would work in
Toronto," Rae said in an interview. At the same time, the possibility
can't be ignored. "It's our responsibility to explore it."

A mobile injection unit, rather than a fixed site might also be
considered, he said - noting the city already has vans that tour the
city with clean needles.

Councillor Pam McConnell, who represents the Cabbagetown area, is
also dubious about safe consumption sites here.

"I don't think a neighbourhood safe injection site is going to be the
solution that comes forward, and it's not one that I would support," she said.

"It would have huge implications for a neighbourhood."

If the federal government closes the Vancouver injection site, Rae
said Toronto would have to decide whether it's worth studying safe
consumption sites.

"I think it would be a devastating message from the federal
government, that local solutions with the agreement of the police and
the province would be ignored," he said.

Another ominous federal development, Rae said, is news that Ottawa
has made the justice department, rather than Health and Welfare
Canada, the lead department in developing its own drug strategy.

"This is not a criminal justice issue. It's a public health issue," he said.

Rae finds it frustrating that while studying safe consumption sites
is only one of 68 measures adopted by Toronto council last December
as part of the city's comprehensive drug strategy, they've become the
focus of debate.

"Alcohol is the major drug problem in this city," he maintains, but
it gets much less attention.

City council carefully hedged its guidelines for the injection site study.

The study must consider the effects of drug use on affected
neighbourhoods, and schools; on local businesses; on neighbourhood
crime patterns; and on property values in the area.

In addition, all levels of government and the police must give their
approval before any site is opened. (Federal approval is needed to
permit addicts to use illegal drugs such as heroin and crack on site.)

The city policy also says "residential groups" in affected
neighbourhoods must be consulted.

For now, the drug strategy has been turned over to a 17-member
implementation panel including politicians, health experts, police
and citizens. Rae estimates it could take two years to come up with a
comprehensive plan.

Despite the local councillors' skepticism that safe consumption sites
will ever be endorsed in Toronto, downtown ratepayer groups remain
apprehensive.

They claim they were frozen out by the original drug strategy task
force, and aren't adequately represented on the implementation panel.

"We haven't been contacted. It's a sham," said Eva Curlanis-Bart, who
heads the Garden District Residents Association in the neighbourhood
south of Allan Gardens.

Rae says the panel has two members representing residents of
communities affected by drugs; they were picked because they are
members of local community police liaison committees with an
understanding of local social and policing issues.

Curlanis-Bart says the panel's other members are heavily weighted in
favour of what she terms the "drug lobby," by which she means
counsellors, mental health professionals, street workers and others
who earn a living dealing with addicts.

Suzanne Edmonds, in the Corktown neighbourhood south of Shuter St.
between Parliament St. and the Don River, agrees the interests of
addicts and those who deal with them are being considered at the
expense of the needs of others.

Addicts need help, she agrees; it's a question of balance.

"Suppose you have 100 addicts and you open a safe injection site on
Sherbourne St.," she said.

"How many people live in that community, who are not addicts (but)
who are now going to be affected by the concentration of marginalized
people, high on drugs, all in one spot? How many?

"At what point do the rights of a small group take precedence over
the rights of the community as a whole?" The issue is spilling over
into the election.

Howard Bortenstein, who argued strongly against injection sites as
the task force was developing its recommendations, is running against
McConnell for her seat on council.

"You can't have programs pushed into a neighbourhood without
recognizing there's going to be an impact," he said.