CHURCH PREVIEWING DRUG INJECTION SITE

First United Church in the Downtown Eastside will open a model
safe-shooting site next weekend in hopes of spurring the federal
government into speeding up its review of the concept.

Dean Wilson, president of the Harm Reduction Action Society, said no
drugs will be injected on the premises, but street nurses will be on
hand to show how a safe injection room would operate.

The model site will be similar to a trial safe injection site
operated in a First United Church in Australia in Sydney's Kings
Cross district, which has drug problems similar to those of the
Downtown Eastside. The site will have tables, mirrors, sterilizing
equipment, posters with site rules, referral services and health
information.

Wilson said the concept of a place where addicts can shoot-up in
relative safety has been embraced by Mayor Philip Owen, provincial
health officer Perry Kendall, former health minister Allan Rock and
the mayors of several large Canadian cities. The Vancouver Police
Department supports the mayor's drug strategy, which includes a
feasibility study of shooting galleries.

The stumbling block for the project is Health Canada, which is
currently reviewing legal issues surrounding the idea. Donald
MacPherson, the city's drug policy officer, says Health Canada is
moving too slowly.

"They are dragging their feet," said MacPherson, noting drug laws
need to be amended so the sites can operate legally. An illegal
injection site is now operating in Montreal, but not in Vancouver.

Dr. Kendall, who wholeheartedly supports safe injection sites, said
one key obstacle is the United Nation's International Narcotics
Control Board, which has been fighting the Australian government for
three years over the Kings Cross safe injection site. The board is a
quasi-judicial body set up to enforce the 1961 United Nations
international convention on drugs.

"The INCB interpretation is that safe injection sites are established
to facilitate illegal drug use, which is complete nonsense," Kendall
said. "There are legal opinions from the Australians and Health
Canada lawyers that safe injection sites prevent disease and death
and are quite consistent with the provision of the international
treaty."

The board claims the Kings Cross facility breaches international drug
control treaties, but Kendall noted it hasn't attacked safe injection
sites in Europe with as much vigour as it has gone after such sites
in Australia.

A recent report released by the Kings Cross facility showed more than
2,000 drug users used the site in its first nine months of operation,
making more than 21,000 visits to inject drugs under medical
supervision at the facility.

Most clients were men, and the drug most frequently used was cocaine,
followed by heroin.

During the nine months, the site recorded 146 drug overdoses and
turned away 128 people because they were under 18, intoxicated,
accompanied by children, pregnant or unable to self-administer. Like
businesses in the Downtown Eastside, some Kings Cross businesses
remain opposed to the safe injection site, saying it encourages drug
use in the area.

Located at the corner of Hastings and Gore, First United Church
already provides a number of services for local residents, including
a drop-in centre for sex-trade workers and a foot-washing program
twice a week. The church also allows people to sleep in its pews
during the day, and provides coffee, free secondhand clothes, a mail
service, paralegal advocacy and a literacy program.

The demonstration injection site will open April 14, from 9 a.m. to 1
p.m., and April 15 and 16 from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.