Pubdate: Sun, 04 Dec 2005 Source: Vancouver Courier (CN BC) Copyright: 2005 Vancouver Courier Contact: http://www.vancourier.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/474 Author: Mike Howell Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/heroin.htm (Heroin) INSITE STAFF URGED TO HELP ADDICTS INJECT A call for staff at the city's supervised injection site to help drug users inject drugs at the facility is under review. Dr. Perry Kendall, the province's medical health officer, said the provincial steering committee that oversees Insite at 139 East Hastings in the Downtown Eastside is debating the idea. "There are liability issues if staff or volunteers did the injecting, there are probably professional issues if you were asking nurses to do the injecting of illicit drugs," said Kendall, the chair of the steering committee. The Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users wants the injection site to help injection drug users, particularly women, who have trouble injecting or are physically incapable of injecting themselves. Kendall said restricting help for injecting drugs to users in certain categories must be studied. "How do you know they're physically incapable of injecting themselves? There's a lot of issues around that under review at the present time. Before a request could be made for an exemption, we have to clear up some of those questions." Because the service doesn't exist at Insite, drug users incapable of injecting themselves have other users inject them outside the facility, said Diane Tobin, president of the activist group. And that practice, she said, poses problems. "I know there are people who are getting fixed in alleyways by people who are predators. They steal their money and give them bad dope. The person needing help doesn't know if they're getting a clean needle or it's just one coming out of their pocket that's been used 10 times on 10 other people." VANDU formed a team of drug users last year to help users fix in the alleys, said Tobin, noting it will continue to offer the service until a legal alternative is established. Tobin noted fewer women inject drugs at Insite because staff are not allowed to help them inject. She said women have trouble injecting themselves because their veins tend to collapse more than men's veins. "I don't know all the reasons, but it's just a fact that women need the help and don't go to Insite as much as men do," said Tobin, adding she doesn't need help and uses Insite at least three times a day to inject heroin. Of 677 drug users studied in Insite's one-year evaluation, 205 were women. An estimated 1,100 people are "core users" of Insite in a population of 5,000 drug users in the Downtown Eastside. Last Monday, Vancouver police began a policy to arrest drug users injecting drugs within a two-block radius of Insite. Complaints from residents and businesses about public injection drug use prompted the police action. Vancouver police said since Insite opened in September 2003, they have encouraged injection drug users to shoot up at Insite instead of in an alley or hotel. However, police said various agencies in the Downtown Eastside continue to pick up thousands of spent syringes a month in the area around the injection site. As of Thursday afternoon, police hadn't made one arrest. Insp. Bob Rolls, police commander of the Downtown Eastside, said his officers are fully prepared to arrest drug users but so far that hasn't been necessary. "I spent almost four hours in the Downtown Eastside Wednesday and several hours out on the road walking and didn't see one case of somebody shooting up." Police warnings to drug users and various agencies in the Downtown Eastside prior to the crackdown-and the media attention about the crackdown-has obviously worked, Rolls said. Rolls acknowledged the cold weather may have reduced the number of drug users on the streets, but believes the police message that public users will be charged had the biggest effect. "But that's not to say that we aren't going to be arresting people because I'm sure that we are." Insite is a federal government-approved three-year pilot project that will end in September 2006. Kendall and his committee have already sent a letter to Health Canada requesting the facility be extended beyond 2006. - --- MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman