Pubdate: Sat, 26 Aug 2006
Source: Winnipeg Free Press (CN MB)
Copyright: 2006 Winnipeg Free Press
Contact:  http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/502
Author: Camille Bains, Canadian Press
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?142 (Supervised Injection Sites)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/heroin.htm (Heroin)

STUDY BACKS SAFE INJECTION SITES

VANCOUVER -- The first study to gauge drug addicts' experiences at 
any safe injection site suggests North America's only such facility 
needs to be expanded to reduce public drug use and unsafe disposal of needles.

But as the clock ticks toward the site's licence expiring on Sept. 
12, the federal government remains tight-lipped about whether the 
site will be allowed to continue operating under an exemption of 
Canada's drug laws.

The study, which is published in the current issue of the 
international scientific journal Addiction Behaviors, surveyed 1,082 
injection drug users, 75 per cent of whom said the facility 
positively changed their injecting behaviour.

Seventy-one per cent of respondents said using the facility meant 
they weren't shooting up outside, while 56 per cent reported less 
unsafe disposal of dirty needles.

Addicts who use the site -- called Insite -- inject their own heroin 
or cocaine under the watchful eye of a nurse as part of a pilot 
project that began three years ago.

Dr. Evan Wood, a senior author of the study, said yesterday that HIV 
rates have also come down in the drug-riddled Downtown Eastside since 
Insite opened. That means health-care costs have been reduced because 
it costs taxpayers $250,000 to treat each person infected with the 
virus, he said.

Wood is concerned that the Conservatives received a request to 
continue the exemption six months ago and still haven't made any kind 
of announcement so close to the licence expiring.

"I'm worried from a public health perspective about what will happen 
if the site closes," said Wood, an epidemiologist at the B.C. Centre 
for Excellence in HIV/AIDS and an assistant professor in the 
department of medicine at the University of British Columbia.

"I think there will be such a backlash in Vancouver when we go back 
to the same patterns of needles in store fronts and people injecting 
in public in the tourist areas of Gastown that British Columbia will 
probably not tolerate it for that long."

Federal Health Minister Tony Clement was not available for comment.

Robin Walsh, a spokesman for the minister, said no decision has yet 
been made on the fate of the site.

"The minister is undertaking assessment of the pilot project and the 
results to date," Walsh said from Ottawa.
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MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman