LIABILITY INSURANCE COVERS TAXPAYERS IN EVENT OF OVERDOSE AT INJECTION SITE

If a drug addict using the city's legal injection site in the Downtown
Eastside overdoses and dies in the facility, can the victim's family
sue the operators?

The short answer is "yes," according to Clay Adams, a spokesman for
the Vancouver Coastal Health Authority, which co-manages the site with
PHS Community Services Society.

Adams, however, pointed out that the health authority carries
liability insurance to protect the facility and its workers-the same
liability insurance that applies to hospitals and other health care
facilities.

Even so, Adams said that wouldn't prevent lawyers from suing an
injection site employee or his or her employer. Since Insite, the
injection site at 139 East Hastings, is funded by the provincial and
federal governments, they could also be named in a suit.

"Let's face it, there are lawyers out there who will jump on every
opportunity to push the system and to find a reason for taking on the
system," Adams said.

"All I can say is that the input we've had from our legal counsel and
from the liability insurers is that we have adequate liability
insurance to cover us for the day-to-day operations of the site."

In the event that an off-site problem-such as a crime committed by a
drug-induced Insite client-results in a lawsuit, the health authority
would address that on a case by case basis, he said.

To protect Insite from successful lawsuits, each addict must sign a
waiver before using the facility, accepting the risks of using the
site and authorizing Insite staff to provide emergency care if
necessary, Adams said.

"But the old saying goes, the waiver is not worth the paper it's
written on if you've been negligent in that practice."

A manager and two registered nurses are expected to be present at all
times at Insite, which has already pre-registered 300 addicts to begin
using the site over the next week. A doctor will also be on-call for
the facility.

Of the 40-plus injection sites operating in Europe and Australia, not
one has been the subject of a lawsuit against employees or operators,
according to research done by Vancouver civil litigation lawyer Craig
Jones.

In June 2001, Jones presented a paper titled "Safe Injection Facilities:
Opening the Legal Doors" at a legal symposium at Simon Fraser University.

The former president of the B.C. Civil Liberties Association and
current employee of Bull Housser and Tupper concluded that civil
liability issues are not a serious bar to the operation of an
injection site, despite concerns frequently raised by opponents of
such sites.

"It's been suggested that any pilot project for safe injection sites
would promptly collapse under the weight of dog piling lawyers. I
don't think it's so," he wrote.

"In my view, the greatest threat of lawsuits comes from citizens in
the neighbourhood of such a site, who may believe that it is a public
nuisance. In such a case, though, the harm and inconvenience caused by
such a facility is weighed against the benefits, surely the balance of
utility tips in favour of the facility, and ultimately such challenges
would be unsuccessful."

Insite will be open daily from 10 a.m. to 4 a.m.

All users must sign their initials on a waiver, along with their age,
address-if they have one-and gender before accessing clean injection
equipment.