Pubdate: Wed, 01 Apr 2015
Source: Vancouver Courier (CN BC)
Copyright: 2015 Vancouver Courier
Contact:  http://www.vancourier.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/474
Author: Mike Howell

MORE DRUG INJECTION SERVICES CONSIDERED

Health Canada yet to weigh in on current "illegal" injection
facility

Vancouver Coastal Health will consider adding supervised drug
injection services to existing health clinics, if Health Canada grants
an exemption to a downtown facility that has "illegally" operated an
injection room for its registered clients since February 2002.

Dr. Patricia Daly, the chief medical health officer for Vancouver
Coastal Health, said the health authority is still waiting for Health
Canada's decision on the Dr. Peter Centre before it looks to expand
injection services in the city.

The centre operates a three-booth injection room and allows for
supervised injection in its residential care facility at Comox and
Thurlow. It caters to people with AIDS and those dealing with mental
health and addictions issues.

"I've been disappointed at how long it's taken," Daly told the
Courier. "We had hoped that if Health Canada approves that different
type of model [at the centre], we could then expand that to other
sites. We want that model elsewhere."

Daly wouldn't speculate on how many sites but pointed to existing
community health clinics, which already provide needle exchanges, as
likely locations. The concern for staff at health clinics is that drug
users continue to inject drugs outside a facility without supervision,
she said.

"They're worried because they know some of these vulnerable residents
might be injecting drugs and might overdose, and what are they going
to do if that happens?" Daly said.

Vancouver Coastal Health announced last week that Health Canada
renewed an exemption for the Insite supervised drug injection site on
East Hastings to operate for another year.

But unlike Insite, the Dr. Peter Centre has never received an
exemption in the 13 years it has operated its injection services and
is considered "illegal" by Health Canada, although the Vancouver
Police Department has consistently said it has no plans to shut it
down.

Staff at the centre consulted the College of Registered Nurses and a
lawyer before offering the injection service in 2002.

Vancouver Coastal Health, on behalf of the centre, applied to Health
Canada in 2002 for the exemption and included it in the application
for Insite, which opened in 2003. To this day, it still isn't clear
why the centre didn't get an exemption. Health Canada declined to give
a reason.

The health authority's latest request for an exemption came in
February 2014. It was made before the Harper government, which has
battled unsuccessfully in the courts to shut down Insite, passed new
legislation to make it more difficult, if not impossible, for an
applicant to get a site open in Canada.

Last week, the federal Conservatives passed the Respect for
Communities Act, which sets out a detailed list of criteria an
applicant must meet to open an injection site. Criteria includes
providing information outlining the views of police, municipal
leaders, public health officials and provincial health ministers.

The more onerous task of the applicant is to show the proposed
injection site's expected impact on crime rates and supply
documentation on treatment options for drug users. The Act also
requests the public health reasons for needing such a site and
evidence there are resources to sustain the facility's operations.

"If there are businesses or people opposed to Insite and they submit a
letter, that alone could be enough for the [federal] minister of
health to deny the application," Daly said.

Donald Macpherson, the city's former drug policy coordinator, said he
is aware of the health authority's wish to expand drug injection
services to health clinics.

But Macpherson, who is now the director of the Canadian Drug Policy
Coalition, said any new injection sites or services should be set up
to handle high volumes of drug users.

"If you put them in very low volume community clinics that actually
can't handle a high volume of street-involved drug users, that's a
problem," he said.

But as Daly said, the health authority's decision to expand injection
services is dependent on what Health Canada decides regarding the Dr.
Peter Centre's application for an exemption.

Health Canada has not told her when to expect a decision, although it
requested more information on the application as recently as last week.
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MAP posted-by: Matt