DRUG ACTIVISTS DRAW IRE FROM CITY RESIDENTS

Temporary Needle Exchange Intended To Highlight Need

Angry downtown residents berated members of the grassroots group Harm
Reduction Victoria as group members set up a temporary needle exchange
in the so-called "no-go zone" yesterday afternoon.

The story of Victoria's street problems played out in microcosm as
condo owners complained about violence, defecation in their front yard
and discarded needles, while drug users and supporters argued the need
for a permanent needle exchange, scrapping the no-go area for the
mobile needle exchange and the need for a safe-injection site.

The two-block radius around St. Andrew's Elementary School is
off-limits to the AIDS Vancouver Island mobile needle exchange, even
though gathering places such as Our Place are in the immediate vicinity.

The Cormorant Street needle exchange closed six months ago and no new
location has been identified by the Vancouver Island Health Authority,
meaning people are being denied essential health care and are at risk
of health problems from HIV to abscesses, said Harm Reduction
spokeswoman Kim Toombs.

"We don't want to run a needle exchange here. We don't want to operate
a safe consumption site, but these services are essential," she said,
while volunteers handed out needles, syringes and crack smoking
supplies, along with muffins and sandwiches.

The supplies were bought with donations, Toombs said.

As supporters donned masks of VIHA CEO Howard Waldner, Toombs said
VIHA and the new Victoria city council must take action or face
escalating community action, including more temporary needle exchanges.

"If VIHA isn't going to

take responsibility and open up a safe consumption
site

now, we will," she said.

Agnes Stewart, who lives in a nearby condominium, demanded to know who
was looking out for her rights as a taxpayer as she deals with
threats, public urination and needles.

People take drugs out of choice, but people living in the downtown
area have no choice, she said.

"I was called a part of the female anatomy this week when I told a guy
not to squat in my front yard," she said.

"I don't want to pay for this and I don't want this right in my
neighbourhood."

Sherron Fox said she does not let her grandchildren go to the Pandora
Street McDonald's when they come to stay because of the drug dealing
and violence, adding it is costing residents more than they can afford
for increased security.

Joan Waller, North Park Neighborhood Association safety chairwoman,
said she was almost killed recently as police raced to help a girl
beaten up during a drug deal.

"There was blood running down her face. Look at all the violence and
crime," she said.

For their part, drug users said the problem is not going to go away,
so more services should be provided.

Kim Freeman is on the methadone program, but as a former heroin
addict, she knows people won't walk a few blocks to get a clean needle
once they have the drugs.

"You're sick. You will do what you have to. As soon as you get it you
want it in your system," she said.

People need clean needles to stop the spread of disease and they need
somewhere they can go and not be judged, preferably where they can
shoot up in private, said Freeman.

A "no-hassle" park, with an ambulance standing by to respond to
overdoses, could help get the problem off the street, said David
Morgan, who now smokes crack rather than doing intravenous drugs.

There will always be addicts, Morgan said.

"I don't know if there's any solution."