NEEDLE EXCHANGE OPENS IN NORTH VANCOUVER

Vancouver Coastal Health has opened a free needle exchange on the
North Shore.

The facility, located in the medical health building at 132 West
Esplanade in North Vancouver, 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 clean ones, free of charge.
Similar services have been available for some time in other
communities overseen by the authority -- including Vancouver, Richmond
and the Sunshine Coast -- but until now no such facility has existed
in North or West Vancouver.

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 so do 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 prior to
opening the exchange here, said O'Connor. In a note to the North Shore
News Tuesday, a spokesman for the North Vancouver RCMP said the force
was also unaware of the program.

"I don't think there's a requirement to do so," he said. "It's not
going to be a problem; it's going to be pretty low key."

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
resident to 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 site for injection 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."