FEDS TO OK DRUG INJECTION CENTRES

Addicts Could Hit Up

MONTREAL (CP)-- 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 centres where intravenous drug
users could safely inject their drugs.

The ministry is now shaping the guidelines under which cities could make
proposals to open a safe-injection centre, Farah Mohamed, a spokesman for
Health Minister Anne McLellan, said yesterday.

PROPOSALS DUE SOON

"We're in the process," Mohamed said. "The minister, by the end of this
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 centre.

Since proposals will be welcomed by the end of this year, that opens the
door for Canada's first federally approved injection site sometime in 2003.

A report in Montreal's Le Devoir yesterday said Health Canada would not
play a role in funding the injection sites but Mohamed said no decision has
been made.

SAFE INJECTION SITES

The Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network completed a report in April, calling
for the creation of trial safe-injection sites and citing a Canadian
Medical Association Journal article from August 2001 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 centre in that it
would provide intravenous drug users with trained medical professionals to
monitor the injection of drugs.