FREE HEROIN CLINIC HAS A HOME BUT MUST MEET STRINGENT SECURITY STANDARDS

VANCOUVER (CP) - A clinic providing free heroin to Vancouver addicts
will be recruiting 158 people for a study to see if prescribing the
drug can improve their lives.

Jim Boothroyd, project spokesman for the North American Opiate
Medication Initiative, or NAOMI project, said Wednesday the clinic
also now has an official site on the Downtown Eastside.

But Boothroyd said the project has a long way to go before the
volunteers are recruited and the clinic opens its doors.

City approval has been received, but the study still needs Health
Canada's blessing. Government security standards must also be met.

"For a study of this sort, Health Canada has high levels of security
demanded," Boothroyd said.

Very little heroin will be at the site, he added.

"There will probably be less drug on this site than at an average
pharmacy," he said.

The trial is to determine if prescribed pharmaceutical grade heroin -
in tandem with methadone treatment - is more effective than methadone
alone in treating certain opiate-addicted people.

A control group will be given the medically available hydromorphone, a
medically available opioid.

NAOMI hopes to run 12-month trials in Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal
with a total of 400 participants, beginning this fall.

Participants will be recruited only from established Vancouver
residents, Boothroyd said.

"It's a gesture to the community concerned that this study would
become a honeypot, drawing people in from all around," he said.

"There's no shortage of people on the Downtown Eastside who would
benefit from the study."

About 4,000 addicts live in the 15-square-block Downtown Eastside. The
area has one of the highest HIV infection rates in the world.

A safe injection site for intravenous drug users opened in the area
last year as part of the city's approach to addiction treatment.

Mayor Larry Campbell said the heroin study dovetails well with the
injection site and has the city's blessing.

"This is a health-care facility," he said. "We're taking addicts off
the street.

"The fear comes from lack of understanding and knowledge of what is
taking place there," said Campbell, a former coroner and RCMP officer.

The study also has the approval of the Vancouver Police Department.

"We're co-operating with health officials," spokeswoman Sarah Bloor
said. "We don't anticipate any problems."

NAOMI estimates there are between 60,000 and 90,000 opiate-addicted
people in Canada.

The project has scientific approval and funding from the Canadian
Institutes of Health Research.

NAOMI had originally planned to open at a different location near a
school and adjacent to an alcohol- and drug-free housing project. It
abandoned that plan when neighbours objected.

For the businesses in nearby Chinatown, the move isn't far
enough.

Chinatown Merchants Association director Sammy Kam acknowledged such a
study can only exist in or near the Downtown Eastside but questions
why it can't be done from a hospital.

And, he said, with the site on a street connecting Chinatown with the
historic Gastown area, having drug addicts hanging around will be bad
for business and tourism.

"If it works, fine," Kam said. "If not, who's going to suffer?"