PLACE TO SHOOT UP, 'CHILL OUT' TO OPERATE BY SUMMER

The Vancouver Coastal Health Authority has demolished a $30,000-model safe
injection site set up by the Portland Hotel Society to make way for a new
$1.2-million facility paid for by the provincial government.

The health authority's new 12-stall safe injection site, at 135 and 139
East Hastings St., will be operated with the help of Portland Hotel Society
staff, who will provide peer counselling.

Construction began in mid-May and is expected to be completed by August.

The Portland's site, which was paid for through an anonymous $30,000
donation, had six stalls, stainless steel tables and mirrors for supervision.

Viviana Zanocco, spokeswoman for the health authority, said besides the 12
stalls, the new site will contain a "chill-out" room and support services
for addicts.

Zanocco said Health Canada approval to operate the site is imminent, but
will include certain conditions-that the site be operated by a health
authority and that only injection drug use be permitted.

Zanocco said the health authority chose the site because the Portland Hotel
Society had already built the model site on the ground floor of 135 East
Hastings St. The Portland Hotel Society, the Life Is Not Enough Society and
the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users created a separate society-Health
Quest Support Services Association-to lease the space.

The health authority has taken over Health Quest's lease, and plans to
remove the wall dividing the ground floors of 135 and 139 East Hastings and
install a ventilation system. The Portland's facility was reportedly not
useable because it wasn't built according to city building codes.

Thia Walter, director of Health Quest Support Services Association, said
she's not thrilled that the health authority has taken control of the site,
but is happy that addicts will be able to shoot up safely within the next
few months.

"The health authority had some pressure put on them to come up with
something and we were the only game in town," Walter said.

Walter believes it's not necessary to have support services on-site because
a user would likely not be interested before or after shooting up.

"They have this strange idea that you have to have services attached to the
actual site, which is kind of foolish. If someone is looking to have a fix,
concentration is on that fix and until they get that drug into them they
are not going to be listening to someone offering a life-skills course.
Then once they get high, they either want to dance on the streets or chill
out and enjoy the fact they are not in pain anymore."

Zanocco said providing support services is part of Health Canada's
conditional approval for the site.

"What's happened wasn't part of the Portland's envisioning for the site
because when they started out on this, they didn't know what Health Canada
wanted or required for a supervised safe injection site," Zanocco said,
adding there are no plans to reimburse the Portland for the $30,000.