IDEA OF SAFE-INJECTION SITES STILL NEEDS REVIEW FOR CITY

A parliamentary panel's recommendation for safe-injection sites for drug
addicts did not surprise an outreach worker with the AIDS Society of Kamloops.

Whether those sites are workable in Kamloops is something that Ken Salter
wants to see looked at through a community assessment. To that end, the
society has asked the city's Social Planning Council for a grant of $3,800
to hire a part-time person to help do the research.

"We're not prepared to engage in a debate over the viability or value of
safe injection facilities as this debate has been ongoing for the past 10
years and the federal government has given us the answer," Salter said Monday.

"The only question needing to be answered now is, can Kamloops benefit from
this new and innovative medical tool?"

He said if any city can show a need, he didn't think there will be a
problem getting funding to set up a safe-injection site. Whether Kamloops
has a need is what has to be determined.

Dr. Perry Kendall, B.C.'s provincial medical health officer, said the
safe-injection site recommendation is just one aspect of the 174-page
report. The document as a whole pushes forward the agenda to establish a
national drug strategy ? a move he is glad to see.

The report also recommends the federal government renew its strategy for
reducing all drug use, including alcohol, tobacco, inhalants, prescription
drugs and illegal drugs. It also calls for measurable goals and a drug
commissioner, which allows for accountability, he said.

Kendall said he has come out previously in favour of establishing
safe-injection sites and then evaluating them. Health Canada has even
released guidelines on what a site proposal would have to submit to be
eligible under the Controlled Substances Act, he noted.

While most safe-injection sites in Europe haven't been scientifically
reviewed, they have been expanded upon, which he took as an indication they
have had successes.

"It's hard to believe if they'd resulted in bigger drug scenes, overdose
deaths, that they would have continued to expand them."

And a supervised injection site in Sydney, Australia, which has been open
for about a year has been rigorously evaluated. It seems to be doing what
it's supposed to do, Kendall said.

"In Australia, they've made a considerable number of referrals from sites
to treatment centres," he said.

What the sites do is provide injection drug users with a place where they
can get in touch with health-care workers if they need them, where if they
overdose they can get help, and where they can get clean needles and not
pass on HIV or hepatitis C, he explained.

Kendall said he served on the same committee as the head of the RCMP's drug
enforcement arm, who agreed there is a compelling rationale to implement
scientific, medically supervised trials of injection sites in Canada.

The main danger with the sites is that they can become drug markets,
Kendall continued. In Vancouver, the Downtown Eastside is already a drug
market. Those operating the sites have to make sure security is adequate,
he said.

Kendall said he doesn't believe there's much merit to the argument that
injection sites encourage addicts to stay hooked. He said the success rate
of those going through their first round of treatment is about 30 per cent
getting clean, 30 per cent reducing their drug consumption and 30 per cent
returning to their old lifestyle.

He also pointed out that at any one time, about half of heroin users want
to get off the drug.

"More people want to get into treatment than we have the treatment capacity
for," he said.

Supervised injection sites can help while people are caught between their
addiction and waiting to get treatment, he added.