RESTRICTIONS PLACED ON NEEDLE EXCHANGES

The Saskatchewan Party government is limiting the number of needles
given out in its needle exchange programs, despite an earlier
government-ordered review that found the existing system helps curb
disease and reduce health care costs.

Premier Brad Wall said capping how many needles can be handed over at
one time means addicts may visit health workers at exchange sites more
often, creating more opportunities for them to seek treatment.

"They can be giving out literally handfuls (of needles) at a time in
exchange for handfuls," Wall told reporters in advance of a throne
speech, which outlined the pledge to change the provincially funded
needle exchange programs delivered in some health regions.

There needs to be more emphasis on providing intervention so people
"don't need the needles in the first place," the premier said.

However, no new funding is being provided at this time, Wall said. But
the government will re-establish a stand-alone addictions agency
rather than continue to house the service within the Ministry of Health.

The move to limit clean needle distribution was panned by some
community groups in Regina and Saskatoon that said the province is
only opening the door to more exposure to diseases such as AIDS.

"It's frustrating to see politics kind of in the mix," said Shawn
Fraser, executive director of Carmichael Outreach, which hosts a
needle exchange delivered by the health region. "There are people that
will contract deadly diseases if we don't help them," Fraser said,
adding that also impacts the health care system.

Margaret Akan of All Nations Hope AIDS Network said the government is
simply creating barriers to people accessing clean needles.

"They're making these policies and rules at a high level. They need to
get down to the grassroots and see what's really going on," Akan said.

AIDS Saskatoon said in a statement that it was "incredibly
disappointed" with the throne speech, calling restrictions on access
to new needles a "recipe for disaster."

A 100-page report commissioned by the Ministry of Health and released
in February estimated that needle exchange programs reduce the
transmission of HIV by onethird, and mean an estimated annual savings
in health-care costs in Saskatchewan of $4 million.

But said Wall rising HIV rates in Saskatchewan actually reinforce the
government's move to change the needle exchange system. Needle
exchanges here may be "biased toward supply" rather than intervention,
he said.

"We are well over - well over - almost six times greater in terms of
the amount of needles we will give out in a Regina or a Saskatoon
versus for example Calgary or versus even the city of Winnipeg," he
said.

Wall said that comparison is a concern, even though a recent review
stated the most commonly used injection drugs in Saskatchewan sees the
average addict use 20 or more needles a day, unlike drugs popular in
other centres that don't involve frequent injections.

The Regina-Qu'Appelle health region distributed about two million
needles last year with a return rate of over 90 per cent, but it still
left 100,000 needles that weren't returned through the exchange
system, Wall said, adding too many parks in the major cities are
"littered with dirty needles."

Wall acknowledged there have been zero reports in Saskatchewan of
someone becoming infected due to a prick from a discarded needle. But
that doesn't mean that it couldn't happen, he said.