Pubdate: Fri, 02 Nov 2012
Source: Montreal Gazette (CN QU)
Copyright: 2012 Canwest Publishing Inc.
Contact: http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/letters.html
Website: http://www.montrealgazette.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/274
Author: Michelle Lalonde
Page: A7

FEARS OVER SAFE INJECTION SITES UNFOUNDED, SAY ADVOCATES FOR USERS

A group representing street drug users says it's time for Montreal to
open safe drug injection sites in neighbourhoods where drug use is
rampant, even if neighbours don't agree.

"It's normal for people to have some fears, but when you know the
facts (you realize) it's logical to have safe injection sites," said
Alexandra de Kiewit, a member of ADDICQ-Montreal, a project devoted to
improving the health of drug users.

De Kiewit was speaking to reporters Thursday at a news conference
under the Jacques Cartier Bridge, which she said is symbolic of the
kinds of places where drug users shoot up.

She said fears that setting up indoor injection centres will increase
drug use or increase crime rates in neighbourhoods have not been
supported by studies on safe drug injection sites in other cities,
such as Vancouver.

Safe injection sites get drug users off the street, reduce the number
of contaminated needles discarded in public places, reduce the
dangerous practice of sharing needles and put drug users in contact
with the health system. De Kiewit said it is a matter of life and
death, and the establishment of these centres should not have to wait
until every single person in a neighbourhood is persuaded it is necessary.

She would not say where the group proposes to set up the centres,
although somewhere downtown is an obvious choice.

"We are talking about putting safe injection sites in places which
already hand out clean needles and give other services to drug users,"
she said.

A report released last year by Montreal's public health department
pointed to an "epidemic" of HIV and hepatitis C infections as well as
overdose deaths among drug users in Montreal, and recommended the
establishment of safe injection sites as soon as possible.

According to a long-term study of Montreal-area drug users by the
health department and a community group called SurvUDI, 18 per cent of
local injection drug users are infected with HIV and 68 per cent with
hepatitis C.

According to the same study, about 26 per cent of drug users surveyed
in 2007 had shared a needle in the previous six months, although that
number had gone down significantly since 1995, when it was 45 per cent.

Death by drug overdose is a growing problem in Montreal, according to
that report.

Between 2006 and 2009, an average of 72 people per year died from drug
overdose, up from an average of 51 per year between 2000 and 2005.

The public health department also notes that the mortality rate among
street youth in this city is 11 times higher than other young people
of the same age (14 to 25).

Former Liberal health minister Yves Bolduc scrapped a pilot project
for a safe injection site in Montreal in 2008 after first committing
to the idea.

At that time, the Parti Quebecois lambasted Bolduc, with Bernard
Drainville, health critic at the time, calling the decision ignorant
and not based on science or facts.

But representatives of ADDICQ-Montreal said Thursday they expect the
PQ to follow through and restart the pilot project.

"I'm really optimistic because the new government has already said it
is in favour of safe injection facilities," de Kiewit said.

Calls to the health department by The Gazette were not returned
Thursday.

Peter Sergakis, who heads the downtown merchant's group L'association
des proprietaires de bA"timents commerciaux du Quebec, said he has
some misgivings about the idea of an injection site.

"You have to wonder if there will be more (drug use) if you give them
a nice private place to go," he said in a telephone interview.

"But for sure we have to do something, because right now you see them
shooting up everywhere, on the streets, doorways, all over downtown,
especially around St. Hubert and Ste. Catherine St. It's not good for
tourism; it's not a great image for the city."

He acknowledged that getting drug users off the street, and in contact
with health workers, would be a good thing.

"There have to be parameters, so that they aren't hanging around
outside the centres ... but we can't leave things the way they are now
with people spreading disease and getting killed."

To read what ADDICQ-Montreal has to say about safe injection sites, go
to www.bit.ly/X4Awlc .
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