Pubdate: Thu, 27 May 2010 Source: Victoria Times-Colonist (CN BC) Copyright: 2010 Times Colonist Contact: http://www2.canada.com/victoriatimescolonist/letters.html Website: http://www.timescolonist.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/481 Author: Beverly Brookman NEEDLE EXCHANGE PLANS DESTRUCTIVE The Vancouver Island Health Authority's original St. John's Ambulance site was to provide a true integrated service, which is the accepted fixed needle exchange harm reduction strategy. How far it has strayed with its "distributive model fixed needle sites" now proposed. This model is inadequate and unacceptable. A fixed needle exchange is not about needles. It's about basic health care. It's about compassion. It's about community building and belonging. It's about rehabilitation. Drug users need a space where trained staff handle their health and direct their harm reduction. I believe the front-line workers in health clinics and other community facilities neither want to interact nor have adequate training to provide harm reduction. Clientele differences are obvious. The VIHA decision removes our community's capacity to address open drug use and provide basic health care. Violence is being done to too many of our citizens. The decision is not only physically dangerous, but denies drug users their dignity and leads directly to helplessness and hopelessness. VIHA, the city and particularly the provincial government are all accountable. Those with the fewest resources both physically and economically are being traumatized. We all have responsibility to speak up and demand more ethical and compassionate decisions. Beverly Brookman Victoria - --- MAP posted-by: Keith Brilhart