CITY CAN'T WAIT ANY LONGER FOR NEEDLE-EXCHANGE SITE, VICTORIA
COUNCILLOR SAYS

After two years without a fixed needle-exchange site, Victoria can't
sit back and wait for health officials to develop an Island-wide
distribution model, says Victoria Coun. Philippe Lucas.

"There's absolutely no reason and no excuse for us to wait for an
Island-wide model to be put in place before this municipality takes
action in trying to reduce the spread of disease and improve the
public health of our region," Lucas said.

The Vancouver Island Health Authority is looking at a number of
potential sites to establish an Island-wide distributed needle
exchange program.

At Lucas's urging, council has asked city staff to compile past
reports on harm-reduction initiatives and consult with stakeholders
such as drug-user advocacy groups, VIHA, AIDS Vancouver Island and
police to produce a report on potential courses of action and costs.

Lucas says the science surrounding the public-health benefits of
needle exchanges is clear.

"And there's also no controversy in terms of the research as to the
need for a fixed-site needle exchange and that that need cannot be
replaced by secondary or mobile sites."

He also supports creating one or more supervised consumption sites in
the capital region.

"We know that's the only way we're going to address both the
public-health concerns around injection drug use but also the public
disorder we saw around a needle exchange like the [former] Cormorant
Street exchange.

"We hear from tourists and businesses alike that the visible drug use
is a concern for our community and the best way to deal with that is
to actually give people a place to go and a safe place to use the
substances that they are addicted to."