Pubdate: Sat, 10 Nov 2001 Source: Vancouver Sun (CN BC) Page: Front Page Copyright: 2001 The Vancouver Sun Contact: http://www.canada.com/vancouver/vancouversun/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/477 Author: Frances Bula Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?142 (Safe Injecting Rooms) ROCK READY TO SUPPORT SAFE-INJECTION SITES Canada's health minister is prepared to support safe-injection sites for hard-drug users if local community representatives stand behind them, says an official from Health Minister Allan Rock's office. That would mean getting written approval from four local bodies -- city council, the provincial government, the local health board, and the police, the official said. Health Canada would need express approval because the federal government will not impose supervised injection sites without the approval of local residents, the official said Friday in explaining and amplifying a seven-page letter that Rock recently sent to Vancouver Mayor Philip Owen outlining his support for the city's comprehensive drug strategy. In the letter, Rock writes that he guarantees the federal government will come up with one-third of the $2 million needed to run a special secretariat in Vancouver that will largely deal with drug issues. He also writes that he expects to come up with money for the city's proposed strategies to reduce drug use. On the subject of safe-injection sites, the letter says only that a federal/provincial/territorial task force is currently studying the issue. But the official in Rock's office went further by providing the details of Rock's stand on support and conditions for the sites. However, he specified that Health Canada would not take the initiative to encourage cities to develop community support for safe-injection sites. They would be viewed as an alternative model of health-care delivery, not a clinical trial run by the federal government in cities across the country. It's expected that Rock, who will be in Vancouver next week on other issues, will announce those recently developed standards soon. Until now, Health Canada has taken the non-committal position that safe-injection sites are illegal. If the federal government supported a safe-injection site, it's assumed the health minister would issue an exemption from current drug laws that would allow people to be in possession of illegal drugs inside the facility, an option that legal experts have said is the best route for a site. It's not clear what kind of financial support the ministry would provide. Rock's support and conditions will have a major impact in Vancouver, which is the only city in Canada that has publicly raised the idea of having safe-injection sites for drug users as a way of reducing overdose deaths, treating disease, and providing a first point of health contact for those wanting to stop using drugs. The city announced a comprehensive drug strategy last year that, among its two dozen other recommendations, suggested a task force consider a safe-injection site as part of a harm-reduction effort. Some community groups have also been pressing for sites similar to the safe-injection sites that have been introduced in some European cities. The statement from Rock's office, relayed to local politicians and community groups Friday, was welcomed for its move to new ground. "This advances and elevates the discussion," said Mayor Philip Owen, who has energetically championed the city's drug policy, sometimes over the objections of his own councillors and party members and in the face of determined opposition from a small but vocal group of business owners near the drug-plagued Downtown Eastside. "If the minister of health is saying, 'It's okay with me,' that's a big stimulus." But the leaked news, which is likely a test flight for Rock's eventual announcement, also produced a welter of questions, uncertainty and concerns. In particular, people were troubled by the requirement for written police support, the lack of national leadership in developing a multi-city pilot project, and the possibility that the conditions might mean Vancouver will have to go it alone or not at all. All were concerned about the difficult of asking any police force to provide a written statement saying it supports an activity that is, under current laws, illegal. "Can they professionally do that? That's an interesting academic question," said Owen. "That's kind of an impossible hurdle," said Warren O'Briain, the director of community development at AIDS Vancouver, which is part of a coalition of groups that has been pushing to see a safe-injection site established. "We're thrilled that the federal government is open to looking at conditions under which safe-injection sites could open, but we question some of these requirements." He said only elected representatives, not the police or health board, should be asked to provide support. And Dean Wilson, the spokesman for the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users, said it's simply impossible for the police to provide explicit written support. "They cannot legally come out and say that -- it's ridiculous." Wilson said police might be able to write something softer, for example, that they support Vancouver's comprehensive drug policy, but it's unclear at this point how explicit Health Canada will require the support to be. Chief Constable Terry Blythe could not be reached for comment. Then there's the question of other cities participating. Local community groups had been lobbying the federal government to do a clinical trial of safe-injection sites, since that would guarantee that several cities would be involved and would give it a scientific framework. The mayor has always insisted that Vancouver would not open a safe-injection site unless other Canadian cities did the same and he had anticipated a national pilot project involving six to eight cities. "I guess if it ends up we're the only one, we'll have to deal with that, but I don't look favourably on it," Owen said. Under the conditions proposed, it would mean Vancouver would likely be put in the position of leading a charge to encourage other cities to open similar sites -- a difficult proposition considering it has taken four years of conferences, seminars, public meetings, and field trips to Europe to get its own politicians and residents onside. "There's no real indication other cities are interested," Owen said. "Not that many have advanced to our level." That's largely because no other city has such an in-your-face drug problem as Vancouver. Wilson said that Rock should show some leadership and push other cities to join a pilot program. "This is the gutless way out. He's got to say, 'This is so important that these people have got to come along with us.'" Wilson said there's an obvious need for a safe-injection site in Montreal, in the open-drug market in the city's east end. But he also praised Rock for creating an approval mechanism that is community-based. - --- MAP posted-by: Richard Lake