THE VIRTUE IN MAKING ILLEGAL INJECTIONS SAFER

Larry Campbell has a mission. The front-runner in the race to be mayor of
Vancouver promises that, if elected tomorrow, he will open the city's --
and the country's -- first official safe-injection site. The promise has
reshaped Vancouver's mayoralty race and placed a chill in the heart of the
Non-Partisan Association, Canada's largest civic party (see editorial below).

Vancouver has a notorious drug problem, concentrated in the rundown
neighbourhood known as the Downtown Eastside. This is the area of last
resort for the addicts and down-and-outers who have trouble affording even
the basics of life. Methadone and needle-exchange programs already exist
there. Crime is a problem there and elsewhere in the city, as many in
desperate need of money steal to get it. Others turn to prostitution. The
vulnerability of those in the Downtown Eastside was brought home by the
news that 63 women had vanished from the streets since 1978, 38 of them
since the start of 1997, with only belated official attention paid to their
disappearance -- allegedly the work of a serial killer.

A safe-injection site would not reduce crime. It would not stop people from
turning to drugs, though it might help them stop taking them. But it would
provide a clean, medically supervised place for addicts to go to inject
their illegal drugs, mainly heroin and cocaine. And, as it has shown signs
of doing at sites long operating in Switzerland, Germany and the
Netherlands, it might relieve some of the harm that addiction causes.

It would reduce the transmission of blood-borne diseases, in particular HIV
and hepatitis C, by people sharing needles. It would reduce the number of
overdoses, by removing the pressure on addicts to shoot up hastily, and
thus carelessly. In both those respects, it would continue the good work
already carried out by such concerned groups as the Vancouver Area Network
of Drug Users.

A safe-injection site would reduce the litter of used syringes in the parks
and alleys, and the threat to the health of workers who clean those needles
up, and of the children who stumble upon them. And it would direct those
who asked for help to treatment and rehabilitation programs.

A report for the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network earlier this year
helpfully outlined what safe-injection sites do and don't do. They don't
supply drugs. They don't allow anyone to sell or give away drugs. The
medical supervisors don't administer the needles; they make conditions as
safe as possible for an unsafe practice, provide sterile materials
(syringes, candles, tourniquets, spoons) and, when necessary, resuscitate
people.

Many area merchants fear the sites will attract more addicts to their area
and intimidate their customers. The evidence is spotty -- the network's
report says an injection site in Sydney, Australia, found no increase in
criminal activity -- but it's a concern that any experiment must evaluate.
There would have to be tight security to prevent trafficking.

Other critics say giving addicts a temporary free pass from the criminal
law legitimizes drug use. This seems an unfair characterization of an
attempt to do what jail can't: to work pragmatically to address a serious
social and health problem. Addiction is an illness; as Vancouver Mayor
Philip Owen put it, "You have to realize the user is sick and the dealer is
evil." It's ironic that Mr. Owen, because of his endorsement of the sites,
was discouraged from running again for the NPA, which may now lose its long
hold on the mayoralty to Mr. Campbell, who supports the sites.

Health Canada expects by the end of the year to accept proposals from
cities interested in setting up trial sites. Vancouver is an obvious
choice. Others might include Montreal, Toronto, Edmonton, Quebec City and
Regina -- a city where, for example, 46 per cent of people using injection
drugs are infected with hepatitis C.

Safe-injection sites are not a panacea, but they deserve a chance.