QUEBEC TO DECIDE ON INJECTION SITES SOON

QUEBEC - Quebec will decide shortly if it will open
supervised-injection clinics following the Supreme Court ruling, the
province's health minister said Tuesday.

Yves Bolduc said his government is weighing the implications of last
week's decision from the country's highest court, which ruled
Vancouver's controversial supervised-injection site should stay open
indefinitely.

"I read the judgment twice and I can tell you we're going to take a
decision accordingly," Bolduc told reporters in Quebec City.

The minister noted he has asked his department's legal advisers to
assess the implications of the Supreme Court decision. "I'm going to
wait for that because I want to take a good decision, it's an
important decision." He said his position will be made public "in the
next few days."

Public health authorities are considering opening centres for addicts
who take drugs intravenously in Montreal and Quebec City. Based on
the model of Insite in Vancouver, the clinics would provide a safe
place where users can get clean needles, inject their drugs under a
nurse's supervision and meet intervention workers.

In 2008, then-Quebec health minister Philippe Couillard said the
province was going ahead with a pilot project in Montreal to open a
supervised-injection site, but his successor, Yves Bolduc, overturned
that decision.

In 2009, the province's Institut national de sante publique du Quebec
backed supervised-injections sites, noting they can effectively save
lives, cut down on bloodborne infections among drug addicts and set
users on the road to recovery.

Bolduc has since then said he would wait for the Supreme Court's
decision before making a final decision.

Addiction-support groups have been preparing to open
supervised-injection sites in Montreal and Quebec City even if the
province doesn't approve them.