HEALTH BOSS PITCHES INJECTION SITE

Edmonton would have a place where intravenous drug users could
legally shoot up cocaine and heroin - if Dr. Reka Gustafson had her way.

Gustafson, medical health officer for Vancouver Coastal Health, gave
a talk in Edmonton yesterday on North America's only supervised
injection site, located in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside.

"I think every city where individuals are suffering the harms
associated with their addictions would benefit from such a program,"
Gustafson said.

Since 2003, the Vancouver site has offered addicts a safe place to
inject their drugs under the supervision of medical staff. But
Gustafson denies it promotes use.

The goal of the site is to prevent overdose deaths and the spread of
blood-related viruses and bacteria as well as offer treatment and counselling.

The Vancouver site serves a pilot group of 1,000 users from a total
of about 9,000 addicts in the Downtown Eastside - with about 607
users shooting up daily on average.

Gustafson said it's too early to measure the program's success in
either weaning addicts off drugs or reducing crime. But the site is
the subject of a review by the federal government.

The pilot period ends in December and Ottawa must decide whether to
extend the program.

Dr. Marcia Johnson, deputy medical officer at Capital Health, says
that means it's wait-and-see time for Edmonton, too.

"We want to know about their experience because we're interested in
all kinds of strategies that might improve the health of our region,"
Johnson said. "But there are no immediate plans."

The Vancouver site enjoys the support of the city's mayor and police.
Johnson says Capital Health would require similar partnerships to
launch a program in Edmonton - where there are some 7,000 intravenous
drug users.

Marliss Taylor, director of Edmonton's Streetworks Needle Exhange
program, says an injection site would be "a very good thing for this
city" - where opiates like morphine are the drugs of choice.

Staff Sgt. Darcy Strang of the Edmonton police drug section said it's
too early to know if the department would embrace a supervised
injection site - but the Vancouver experiment is intriguing.

"We're certainly interested in harm-reduction techniques," he said.
"They can be really beneficial to society."