TOO MANY ADDICTS, TOO FEW NEEDLES

A study by the Vancouver Coastal Health Authority suggests more than seven
million needles would need to be distributed in Vancouver and Richmond
annually to meet the needs of addicts.

The seven million figure is based on the 5,800 drug addicts in Vancouver
and 650 in Richmond requiring a sterile needle to inject heroin or cocaine
at least three times per day, the study said.

Currently, just over 3.7 million needles are handed out annually, most of
them by the Downtown Eastside Youth Activities Society.

That leaves a shortfall of more than three million needles, which has
prompted proposals to abandon "counter-productive" one-to-one exchanges and
distribution quotas in favour of more flexible distribution policies, said
the study, called "Plan for HIV Services for Vancouver/Richmond."

Provincial medical health officer Dr. Perry Kendall said the one-to-one
exchange can dissuade addicts from using needle exchanges because they see
having to return needles as onerous.

"The important thing is getting the needles out and getting them back, but
a one-for-one exchange-in my view-has the potential for being a harmful
operating policy," Kendall said.

The exchange programs were initially considered the best way to protect
communities from harm from improperly discarded needles-widely felt to be
necessary to gain community support for needle distribution. "However, from
the perspective of minimizing harm to individuals who inject drugs, there
is no compelling rationale for restricting access to syringes or other
safe-injecting supplies," the study said.

But John Turvey, executive director of DEYAS, said turning needle exchanges
into syringe distribution centres would be bad for addicts and the public,
increasing the risk of puncture wounds from needles left in the streets,
parks and on school grounds.

"If needles are left out there, more addicts could use them a second time
and there would be more danger to the public."

Such incidents rarely occur now, he said, because DEYAS recovers all of the
three-million-plus needles it exchanges annually. The group also runs a
mobile recovery team that regularly picks up used needles from parks,
alleys and school grounds on the East Side.

Though addicts using the DEYAS needle exchange at 223 Main St., which
opened in 1988, are supposed to get clean needles only in exchange for used
ones, Turvey noted the one-for-one policy is not as rigid as critics make
it out to be.

"We never turn anybody away."

Despite Turvey's concerns, Kendall noted there hasn't been one reported
case in Canada of a person contracting HIV/AIDS after being pricked by a
discarded needle.