NEEDLE-SWAP SITES WORRY MUNICIPALITIES

VIHA plans to help drug addicts from four facilities in Victoria area
Councillors from suburban municipalities expressed worries yesterday
about needle exchanges or distribution sites planned for their communities.

Saanich Mayor Frank Leonard said he has concerns about offering
needles through community public-health units, in particular the one
at Quadra Street and McKenzie Avenue. Leonard said he understands the
goal is to spread needle-exchange services throughout the community.
"But I think they need to deal with each site individually, and they
need to canvass the municipality."

The Vancouver Island Health Authority is planning to provide drug
addicts with clean needles from 10 community facilities on the
Island, four in Greater Victoria. The facilities have yet to be
identified, but they're expected to be passing out needles by September.

It's part of Phase 1 of VIHA's strategy to cut down on the spread of
infectious diseases such as AIDS or hepatitis among the drug-using
population through sharing or reusing of needles.

A second phase, after evaluation of Phase I, would see expansion of
needle distribution to 60 sites throughout Vancouver Island.

VIHA decided in November to offer needles at a variety of sites
rather than establishing one fixed needle exchange, after two
attempts to establish such a site were scrapped amid public outcry.

Esquimalt Mayor Barb Desjardins, however, plans to contact the health
authority to express concern about the notion of needles being passed
out from the public-health facility in her municipality.

The health unit in Esquimalt is attached to the municipal hall, next
to a recreation centre and playground, she said, and families
routinely show up to have their small children vaccinated.

"I really have concerns with this," said Desjardins.

Langford councillor Denise Blackwell said the "appalling" record of
the former needle exchange on Cormorant Street in Victoria makes it
difficult to offer needles anywhere.

"I don't see anyone wanting it anywhere near their neighbourhood,"
said Blackwell.

The needle exchange operated on the site for about six years, until
2008. The landlord finally evicted the facility after neighbours
complained of ongoing disturbances and debris such as dirty needles,
condoms, bloody refuse and even feces left behind.

Shannon Marshall, spokeswoman for VIHA, said three fixed-site needle
exchanges are already operating in Nanaimo, Courtenay and Campbell
River without problems. Mobile services, where needles are
distributed from designated vehicles, operate in the Cowichan Valley,
Port Hardy and Victoria.

Distribution of needles from health facilities such as public health
units occurs in Port Alberni, Parksville and Ucluelet. It's also
underway in Victoria through agencies like the Access Health Centre
on Johnson Street.

Medical health officer Dr. Murray Fyfe said yesterday that experience
with other locations, such as Vancouver, has shown secondary
distribution of needles from health facilities is hardly noticed.

"It's very low-key. It's very small-scale," he said in a telephone
interview. "It's unlikely to have any impact at all within any community."

Fyfe noted in a presentation to Victoria city council earlier this
week that dangerous behaviour such as sharing or reusing of needles
has actually dropped significantly among drug addicts since the
Cormorant Street outlet closed, falling from 25 to 30 per cent just
four years ago to about 12 per cent now.

"But there are still people out there who are sharing needles," said Fyfe.

"Ideally, the goal is, around people who continue to use drugs, that
they would use new, clean needles for each injection."