BOB BACKS NEEDLE PARK

Top Cop Says Safe Injection Sites For Junkies Are Worth A Look

City police Chief Bob Wasylyshen has endorsed setting up experimental safe
injection sites for drug users.

And while Edmonton is not one of four cities chosen for the pilot project,
Bob Wasylyshen says the experience gained should help determine whether
it's worthwhile extending the program to other centres such as Edmonton.

The country's big-city mayors earlier this week supported establishing safe
injection sites or "shooting galleries," where needle drug addicts can go
and inject under medical supervision, in Vancouver, Toronto, Montreal and
Regina.

"I'm happy to hear that they have decided to go with a pilot project. I
think we will learn a lot in terms of whether this is a good idea,"
Wasylyshen said yesterday.

"We will learn through some factual cases whether or not this is something
that we may want to pursue more widely, and even perhaps in Edmonton some day."

Mayor Bill Smith said the program hasn't been developed yet.

"It's just a concept based on what they're doing in parts of Europe and
mostly Germany," Smith said yesterday.

The 20 mayors at the Federation of Canadian Municipalities big-city mayors
caucus in Ottawa voted unanimously in favour of the motion made by Vancouver.

The four sites will be part of the Health Canada pilot project which is
providing a grant through the Canadian Centre for Substance Abuse.
Health-care workers believe if addicts are allowed to inject drugs under
supervision, they will get prompt medical help if they need it as well as
clean needles.

The local provincially funded Streetworks program put about 850,000 fresh
needles in the hands of Edmonton's estimated 10,000 injection junkies in 2001.