Pubdate: Sat, 17 Dec 2011 Source: Montreal Gazette (CN QU) Copyright: 2011 Canwest Publishing Inc. Contact: http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/letters.html Website: http://www.montrealgazette.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/274 Author: Aaron Derfel, The Gazette SAFE INJECTION SITE PLAN IS SCIENTIFICALLY SOUND: HEALTH OFFICIAL Despite Ottawa's Opposition, Strategy Reduces Ods, Infections, Doctors Agree Are they legalized shooting galleries or harm-reduction centres? A report released Friday by the Montreal public health department recommends that three supervised injection sites and a mobile one be established next year in city neighbourhoods where intravenous drug use is rampant. Dr. Richard Lessard, director of public health, suggested that fixed sites be set up in Hochelaga-Maisonneuve, downtown and an area near St. Urbain and Prince Arthur Sts. The mobile unit would move around St. Henri and the city's southwest sector. "We are convinced - and all the scientific studies back us up on this point - that supervised injection sites do not create new problems," Lessard told The Gazette. "On the contrary, they reduce the problem of syringes found on the streets and in the parks, and they reduce the number of overdose deaths." The federal Conservative government has taken a "tough on crime" position against supervised injection sites. Federal cabinet minister Tony Clement, when he oversaw the health portfolio, lectured doctors at their annual convention in 2008 on the evils of safe injection sites, saying they violate the medical code of ethics. Most physicians, however, support safe injection sites as places where addicts can take heroin and other drugs without running the risk of contracting HIV and the hepatitis C virus, and potentially spreading the viruses to others. Drug users are often referred by nurses and doctors for psychological counselling and medical appointments that would be inaccessible to them on the streets. Some drug users have found affordable housing through such sites, and many are vaccinated against hepatitis C. Safe injection sites steer almost one in three IV addicts toward drug rehab programs. "Safe injection sites work very well," said Dr. Pierre Cote, director of the HIV/ drug-addition unit at the Center hospitalier de l'universite de Montreal. "They are known to reduce the number of hospitalizations that arise from drug users using dirty needles and they reduce the number of deaths by overdose." A study published in The Lancet medical journal in April observed that illicit drug overdose deaths in Vancouver's downtown eastside plummeted by 35 per cent after the establishment of InSite, North America's first supervised injection facility. The Harper government had tried to indirectly close InSite by letting its exemption from federal drug laws lapse. But in September, the Supreme Court ordered the federal minister of health to grant an immediate exemption to allow InSite to continue running. In Montreal, North America's first safeneedle exchange opened in 1989. Cactus Montreal is still around, but it only provides clean needles. At a supervised injection site, to be located in either a health establishment or a community centre, a health professional will ask the addict a series of questions and supervise the drugtaking, Lessard explained. The voluminous study by the public health department noted that IV drug-use deaths have jumped from an average of 50 a year in Montreal in the first half of the last decade to 72 in 2009, the last year for which complete figures are available. The NIMBY syndrome - Not In My Back Yard - is always an issue with safe injection sites. Lessard said he sympathizes with community groups and has met with concerned citizens. "What we've explained to these groups is that studies have shown that in cities where there are such sites, there has been no increase in the activity," he said. "In proposing three fixed sites and a mobile one, we want to reach the people where they are rather than attracting them to a particular area." - --- MAP posted-by: Richard R Smith Jr.