BENEFITS OUTWEIGH RISKS

Medical health chief supports safe injection sites Despite
controversial opinion on the value of safe drug-injection sites, the
chief medical officer for Northern Health says they are a legitimate
and responsible tool that should be considered throughout B.C.

Dr. David Bowering says the benefit to people is that safe injection
sites "reduce the risk of spreading disease like HIV/AIDS, reduce
risks of overdosing and reduce the risk of drug deaths."

Said Bowering: "Not to say we're ready for this yet in Prince George,
and the only way we could establish something like this would be in
partnership with all the other agencies and people involved, but it
should be considered by health authorities when they are planning
their harm-reduction activities. It's probably a long way off, but it
is something we are talking about."

He said while the needle exchange program in downtown Prince George
does make the downtown area safer for all, making the best of a bad
situation, "the evidence is very strong that the safe injection site
in east Vancouver provides a benefit both to the people who use it
and the local area where it has improved the situation."

Neither an injection site or a needle exchange program provides drugs to users.

Needle exchange users exchange used needles for clean ones to inject
their drugs wherever they choose with no watchful eyes upon them.

Safe injection site users bring in their drugs and inject them on
site where health personnel is standing by in case of overdoses and
other related problems.

Coun. Brian Skakun has an opposite opinion to the health officers.

"I'm concerned about the message it sends to our kids. We discourage
them from drug use, and on the other hand they hear about these safe
places to inject drugs.

"Will other services suffer because of the funding going into these
sites? We have a long list of people waiting for knee, hip and other
surgeries, but drug addicts would be able to go to supervised care to
take drugs. I think the funding would be better spent on drug
prevention and treatment programs," he said.

"If you provide a place like this, more and more intravenous drug
users will come to Prince George. "I don't think it bodes well for
the reputation of our city," said Skakun, who would like to see a lot
more discussion in the community on the topic of safe drug injection sites.

Bowering's support for injection sites reflects those of his fellow
members of the Health Officers Council of B.C., who recently passed a
resolution favouring safe injection sites as a way to reduce the
spread of needle-transmitted disease and drug overdoses and as a way
of making a community safer.

"We just wanted to make it clear that we agree with the evidence in
support of that kind of service whenever the situation seems to merit
it," said Bowering.

He said there's no doubt the subject will continue to surface during
meetings of the HOCBC, which is made up of the province's medical
health officers, physicians and other medical personnel.