NO PROOF LIVES SAVED AT INJECTION SITE

Despite public comments from Mayor Larry Campbell that the city's injection
site is saving lives, the Vancouver Coastal Health Authority insists it
can't say whether any deaths have been prevented at the facility.

Viviana Zanocco, media relations officer for the health authority, said the
term "overdose interventions"-36 as of Dec. 1-is being misconstrued by the
public as deaths prevented.

"I think people hear the word overdose intervention, and they think that's
an overdose that could have been fatal, but that's not necessarily so,"
Zanocco told the Courier.

The controversy surrounding the debate over "overdose interventions" comes
as the B.C. Coroner's Service releases the latest overdose death statistics
for Vancouver.

From September-when the injection site opened-to November, 13 people have
died of drug overdoses in Vancouver, two more than during the same period
last year, before the injection site opened. The coroner's service doesn't
give specifics about the drugs involved, but Chuck Parker, president of the
Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users, said most overdoses are related to
injection drug use.

Zanocco wouldn't comment on Campbell's assertion-which he reiterated at last
month's police board meeting-that lives have been saved at Insite, located
near Main and Hastings.

Nonetheless, Zanocco said the health authority will no longer release the
number of overdose interventions to media because the information can be
misleading. An intervention can include propping an addict back up in a
chair, talking to addicts to ensure they don't lapse into unconsciousness,
administering oxygen, performing CPR or calling paramedics-something that's
been done "two or three times," she said.

"We don't want to provide those numbers anymore because people get the wrong
idea. People say 'Oh wow, you're saving all these lives.' Well no, we're
not."

Zanocco said the health authority won't have a clear picture of the number
of deaths prevented until a team of doctors from the B.C. Centre for
Excellence in HIV/AIDS completes a study in March.

"Until then, we can't say that we would have saved 36 lives or even three
lives. I mean, even if we called the ambulance, chances are that person
might have died, but we don't know for sure until these guys look at it."

Zanocco said there are other ways to measure the success of the site, noting
up to 500 people a day use it, and 40 per cent of the addicts are women.
Users are given wound care and referrals to detox, and the site helps
prevent the spread of blood-borne diseases.

Campbell was in Nashville Friday at a National League of Cities conference,
and was unavailable for comment. However, Geoff Meggs, the mayor's executive
assistant, said Campbell truly believes lives are being saved as a result of
interventions at the site.

"It's not true to say that no lives were saved," said Meggs. "You don't know
how many people who overdose would die. No one can say that number... but
you've probably saved some people from dying."

Parker said he was surprised that overdose deaths have increased in
Vancouver since last year, particularly because Insite is now open. Despite
the increase, he said the numbers have dropped considerably from the
hundreds of deaths per year in the 1990s. Still, he said he will continue to
spread the message, "shoot with a friend, don't do it alone."

The injection site is a three-year pilot project funded by Health Canada and
the provincial health ministry. It will cost $2 million a year to run.