HEALTH CANADA TO CONSIDER SAFE INJECTION SITES

Health Canada is reviewing the criteria for safe injection sites for drug
addicts and will be ready to accept proposals from interested cities by the
end of this year. The Controlled Drugs and Substances Act has already been
reviewed to ensure there is no legal impediment to creating centers where
intravenous drug users could safely inject their drugs.

"We're in the process," Farah Mohamed, a spokesperson for Health Minister
Anne McLellan, said Saturday. "The minister, by the end of the year, will
be able to accept proposals [from individual cities]." Mohamed said it
would take 60 days for Health Canada to review each proposal.

Upon approval, the city would be free to establish a safe injection center.

Mohamed said no decision has been made for Health Canada to fund the
injection sites.

A decision on funding would come only when a prospective safe injection
site is identified, she said. "Health Canada needs to at least co-fund
these safe injection facilities," said Ralf Jurgens, executive director of
the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network. The network completed a report in
April calling for the creation of trial safe injection sites, citing an
August 2001 Canadian Medical Association Journal article that supports its
position. "Supervised injection rooms are a logical next step," the article
stated, "one that combines the merits of realism and compassion." A safe
injection site differs from a needle exchange center in that it would
provide intravenous drug users with trained medical professionals to
monitor the injection of drugs.

There are 125,000 intravenous drug users in Canada, according to CHALN,
whose 1998 study estimated $8.7 billion in direct and indirect costs from
HIV/AIDS over six years if current transmission trends continue.

Montreal's Mount-Royal Avenue Merchants Association opposed the
establishment of such sites, as did the Vancouver Community Alliance, which
accused an injection advocacy group of putting the safety of drug users
ahead of community safety.