WILL POLICE PRESENCE DETER USE OF DRUG INJECTION SITE?

Vancouver -Balancing law enforcement with ease of access at North America's
first supervised site for injecting illicit drugs won't be easy, Vancouver's
police chief said as the site opened Sept. 15 (see pages 759 and 777).

But Chief Jamie Graham pledged to give Insite, which opened in the heart of
Vancouver's Downtown Eastside, "the best possible chances of success." He
said police officers will encourage addicts to use the site and won't
intervene unless they encounter someone for whom they have an arrest warrant
or who is committing a criminal act.

Of the 60 officers who have been assigned to the Downtown Eastside since May
8 in a special policing initiative, 8 will be responsible for the area
around the site -- 2 at a given time. The same set of officers will be used
in this role in hopes of establishing positive relationships with drug
users. Graham says police will not enter the site unless asked by staff.

Deputy Chief Bob Rich says that misinformation among drug users about the
police role may be one of the biggest challenges the site faces. However, he
says news spreads fast on the streets, and once the word is out that the
police are playing a supportive role, more people will use it.

Officials at the 2 groups operating Insite -- the Vancouver Coastal Health
Authority and the Portland Hotel Society -- are confident it will be well
used. Society spokesperson Mark Townsend predicts that 100 to 600 addicts
will use Insite weekly.

Ida Goodreau, CEO of the authority, says the long-awaited opening involved
"unprecedented cooperation" between the Vancouver police and 3 levels of
government. Vancouver mayor Larry Campbell, the city's former coroner who
has made harm reduction a centrepiece of his tenure, called the opening "an
historic day."

In the past 5 years, 524 addicts have died from drug overdoses in the
Downtown Eastside, including 37 in 2003. As part of the harm-reduction
process, the site provides users with clean injecting equipment to reduce
the spread of infectious disease, as well as counselling and referral to
drug-related services.

The provincial government has committed $2 million for the first year of
Insite's operation, and officials at the authority are confident they will
find federal and provincial government funding to continue the operation.
Health Canada is also spending $1.5 million on a 3-year study of Insite's
impact on drug users' health and neighbourhood crime rates.

The site will be open 18 hours a day, 7 days a week. Addicts enter the
building through a secure entry, where they register before entering an
injecting area that accommodates 12 users at a time and is supervised by a
registered nurse. Peer workers from the Downtown Eastside will mingle with
clients in the reception area and encourage them to use other health
services while at the site.