SPEAKERS URGE VICTORIA TO PROVIDE INJECTION SITE

Group Calls for Facility Also Offering Needle Exchange,
Counselling

Speaker after speaker called on Victoria councillors last night to
take whatever steps possible to provide a fixed needle exchange and
supervised-injection site in the city.

Phil Lyons of the South Island Health Coalition challenged councillors
to take a lead role in establishing a needle exchange and injection
site on behalf of "the most ignored citizens" of Victoria. "It's time
for council to take a proactive stance," he said.

Mark Johnson, a volunteer with the drug users' group SOLID, said he's
picked up thousands of discarded needles off city streets. "It's just
ridiculous that there isn't a place where people can go to do their
illicit drugs under supervised conditions where needles can be left
behind," said Johnson, adding a Vancouver Island Health
Authority-owned building on Pandora Avenue would make an ideal site.

Addictions counsellor Lorna Mace said it's "sickening and appalling"
that a city like Victoria doesn't provide at least a needle exchange,
which she called a basic service. "For the record, I live across the
street. You can put it in my backyard," she said.

Some entered the council chamber chanting: "We will not wait. We will
be heard. City hall stick to your word!" But they remained attentive
during the meeting, applauding some speakers.

Harm Reduction Victoria, which encouraged people to address council on
the issue at its regular meeting last night, wants the city to provide
a central property for a "harm-reduction resource centre," which would
include supervised consumption services, a needle exchange and
counselling. Seventy-two people answered the call and registered to
speak. Speakers were continuing at press deadline last night.

Harm Reduction Victoria maintains that despite years of reports
calling for such facilities, Victoria has gone backward with the
closure of the Cormorant Street needle exchange in May 2008. Although
provision of needle-exchange facilities or safe consumption services
is the responsibility of VIHA, in March 2009, councillors identified
harm reduction as one of the city's top seven priorities.

Harm Reduction Victoria notes that in 2007, the mayor's task force on
breaking the cycle of mental illness, addictions and homelessness
identified a need for small, properly staffed, supervised consumption
sites to reduce the spread of disease and provide a stable point of
contact for referrals.

Such sites would take people using drugs off the streets, they
say.

The group also wants an end to the police and VIHA-sanctioned "no-go
zone" that restricts distribution of needles and other harm-reduction
supplies between Blanshard, Chambers, Balmoral and Yates streets.

The fixed needle exchange on Cormorant Street had been in operation
since 2001 when it was evicted two years ago.

Neighbours had long complained about disturbances and hazards
associated with the operation.

Since its closure, mobile needle exchanges have operated by vehicle,
foot and bicycle.