CITIES GET SHOT AT INJECTION SITES

MONTREAL -- 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 spokesperson
for Health Minister Anne McLellan, said yesterday.

"We're in the process," Mohamed said. "The minister, by the end of this
year, will be able to accept proposals (from cities)."

TRAINED PROFESSIONALS

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.

A safe-injection site differs from a needle-exchange centre in that it
provides intravenous drug users with trained medical professionals to
monitor the injection of drugs.

Ralf Jurgens, executive director of the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network
believes trial safe-injection sites should begin in Vancouver, Montreal and
Toronto, adding that other cities such as Edmonton and Quebec City have
shown interest.