FREE NEEDLE EXCHANGE OPENS IN NORTH VANCOUVER

Vancouver Coastal Health Did Not Consult North Shore Municipalities,
Spokesman Says

Vancouver Coastal Health has opened a free needle exchange in North
Vancouver.

The facility, located in the medical health building at 132 West
Esplanade, is up and running as of this week, according to a
representative for the regional health authority, although no official
announcement has been made, and it has not yet received any clients.

The sixth-floor facility, open Monday to Friday during regular office
hours, will allow users of illegal intravenous drugs to bring in used
hypodermic needles and swap them for free clean ones.

Similar services have been available for some time in other
communities overseen by the authority, including Vancouver, Richmond
and the Sunshine Coast, but this is the first on the North Shore.

The idea is to curb the spread of diseases such as HIV and hepatitis
by reducing the incidence of needle sharing, said Brian O'Connor,
VCH's medical health officer for the North Shore.

"We acknowledge the fact that people are going to misuse substances,
and if they're going to do so then the public health philosophy is ...
not to be judgmental; it's not a moralizing issue. It's an issue
around keeping this as safe a behaviour as one possibly can."

It should also help alleviate the burden on the health care system,
O'Connor added.

VCH did not consult with the North Shore municipalities before opening
the exchange, said O'Connor.

A spokesman for the North Vancouver RCMP said the force was also
unaware of the program.

The exchange will not even have street signage. Instead, staff plan to
make the service known through word of mouth, liaisons with other
agencies, and through the distribution of brochures in key areas, such
as Lions Gate Hospital's emergency ward.

It is not clear how many drug users, homeless or otherwise, are on the
North Shore, said O'Connor, but there appear to be few relative to
high-use neighbourhoods such as the Downtown Eastside.

The authority does not expect the new facility to change
that.

"We don't need to be worried about drawing people here," he
said.

"They can get their needles exchanged in a million other
places."

While the clinic may evolve to offer related services, there is no
plan to offer a supervised site for injections similar to Vancouver's
Insite.

"We're not even thinking about that," said O'Connor. "I think we're a
long, long, long way away from that in this community."