INJECTION SITES MAY BE USEFUL, BUT THEY'RE ILLEGAL: AFM

Even if safe injection sites do prove to be helpful to drug addicts,
there's still one problem, says the head of the Addictions Foundation of
Manitoba.

"It is illegal," said John Borody, chief executive officer of the AFM.
"Right now even if we wanted to test it out, it's still against the law."

Borody is part of a committee whose members have been lobbying for
legislation changes that would allow supervised injection sites to operate
on a trial basis.

He says it's entirely possible the safe sites may have value, but no one
will know for sure without a proper analysis.

"As far as we can tell, they still haven't done what we would call a
clinical evaluation," he said. "There's been a lot of hearsay and a lot of
testimonials, but nothing factual, no data."

Until then, Borody recommends harm-reduction models of the already
sanctioned variety, like the methadone program offered by the AFM.

While Borody says heroin use in Winnipeg is "negligible," methadone is also
a suitable treatment for other opiate addictions, including morphine,
codeine, percodan, demerol and dilaudid.

"It is giving them another narcotic, but it's a controlled narcotic," he
said, noting some patients stay on methadone for the rest of their lives,
while others go on to become completely drug-free. "This is one that
doesn't have the same side effects ... you are in control."