NO SAFE INJECTION SITES: MCCALLUM

A safe injection site for drug addicts in Surrey will never be supported or
even considered, says Mayor Doug McCallum.

A recent poll has found that six of 10 Lower Mainland residents support
having a safe drug injection site in the City of Vancouver. But the poll
conducted by Ipsos-Reid for the Now's sister newspaper, The Vancouver Sun,
found that most respondents believe that users of any safe injection site
should also be required to enter a drug treatment program.

A proposal was unveiled last month at Surrey city council to build a
multi-million dollar drug treatment and detox facility. However, the
proposal does not include a safe injection site, said McCallum.

"Surrey's been very clear all along that it won't support safe injection
sites and nothing has changed because of the proposal," he said.

An advisory committee led by the Phoenix Drug and Alcohol Recovery and
Education Society wants to build the $8.6-million integrated treatment
facility on land beside Surrey Memorial Hospital. Called the Phoenix Centre,
the facility would contain a 12-bed detox unit, a 28-bed treatment area and
30 units of temporary housing.

McCallum noted the society must still conduct a study and secure funding
from the provincial and federal governments before local approval is
granted.

A request for $20,000 from the city to help finance the study is being
considered by the finance committee.

Part of the society's proposal includes a $500,000 grant from the city to
build the centre, a request McCallum isn't keen to endorse.

"We don't get into those kind of things from a city point of view because
that's the mandate of the provincial government," said McCallum.

The Phoenix Drug and Alcohol Recovery and Education Society already runs a
pair of group recovery homes in Surrey.