SAFE INJECTION SITES A LOADED TOPIC

Councillor Murry Krause doesn't oppose the idea of safe injection sites.

But he also doesn't think there is an immediate need for one in Prince George.

The idea flared up after Councillor Brian Skakun remarked last week that it
might be worthwhile considering safe sites for drug addicts to shoot up.

While touring through the downtown, Skakun and a reporter came across two men
shooting up in a bushy area littered with used needles and garbage less than
half a block from the courthouse.

Skakun at the time suggested that safe injection sites such as the one that
just opened in Vancouver should at least be part of an integrated discussion of
social issues.

"Our circumstances are different" than Vancouver's, said Krause.

He notes the Vancouver site was established as a way to address to growing
death toll from needle and blood-borne diseases in that city. Prince George
doesn't have nearly the same scale problem, he said.

But if it ever were to reach the same level, he would fully support the idea.

"This is about health protection and health promotion. It isn't about condoning
drug use or anything else. It's about keeping people alive, it's about
attempting to keep HIV and AIDS at bay and Hepatitis and other diseases.

"We have to quit pretending these issues don't exist in our community."