HAVEN FOR DRUGGIES PLUGGED

Giving Toronto junkies safe places to shoot up would clean up downtown
parks, slash drug-related crime and save lives, advocates say.

"It will reduce the transmission of HIV and hepatitis, get drug use off the
street and provide users with a connection to health and social-service
agencies," Dr. Peggy Millson, of the University of Toronto, said at a
conference on harm reduction yesterday.

Safe injection facilities -- which let users bring in drugs and inject them
under watch of a health professional -- already exist in Europe and
Australia, and one is about to open in Vancouver.

In Toronto, homeless users mix drugs in used beer cans with water from mud
puddles and toilets, the forum heard.

If addiction was treated like a medical problem rather than a criminal one,
addicts would be less afraid of getting medical care and counselling, said
Anita Young, a nurse who works with people living on the streets.

Police Chief Julian Fantino has said he is against safe injection sites.