Pubdate: Tue, 29 Mar 2016
Source: Victoria Times-Colonist (CN BC)
Copyright: 2016 Times Colonist
Contact:  http://www.timescolonist.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/481
Page: A8

REDUCE HARM FROM DRUG SITES

The City of Victoria wants to see supervised drug-injection sites in 
the city by the end of the year. A lot of work will have to go into 
making sure their benefits don't come with a lot of unwanted 
side-effects. Leaving aside the contentious question of whether the 
city should have such sites, if a site or sites get approval, how do 
we prevent the areas around them from becoming black holes?

Society has largely got past the idea that it is acceptable to kick 
street people to the curb, and is putting resources into trying to 
help those who need it.

However, we cannot ignore the fact that facilities such as shelters, 
needle exchanges and injection sites come with baggage. Regardless of 
what happens inside the building, problems tend to congregate outside.

Few people in the area can forget what happened around the needle 
exchange on Cormorant Street, which was plagued with fights, garbage, 
discarded needles and excrement. Businesses suffered and anyone who 
could avoid the area stayed away.

It was open for six years, until complaints finally forced its 
closure in May 2008.

Since then, the number of needle exchange sites in the city has 
expanded to 22, according to Victoria Mayor Lisa Helps. Spreading 
them out has reduced the number of complaints. Helps sees that as an 
important lesson to learn, and it's the reason she wants to see more 
than one supervised injection site.

Island Health and other agencies involved in the discussions seem to 
agree that multiple sites are the way to serve the estimated 2,000 
people who would use them. Multiple sites would both disperse any 
problems and reach more potential clients. For the sake of both the 
clients and the community, any injection sites should provide a range 
of services.

Whether it is one site or several, the concerns and needs of 
neighbours must factor into the planning.

Accusations of NIMBYism are not helpful. The epithet is usually 
thrown by those who live far away from the affected neighbourhood. 
It's using guilt to pressure residents into accepting someone else's 
priorities.

Those who live near the tent city and the planned shelter at Mount 
Edwards Court have been called hardhearted and un-Christian for 
voicing opposition to what they see around them, but to dismiss those 
neighbours' legitimate concerns is itself an example of simplistic, 
hard-hearted self-righteousness.

While some NIMBY fears are groundless and some public projects must 
go ahead for the greater benefit, the problems around facilities such 
as Cormorant Street are real. It's not good enough to say that some 
residents will just have to put up with those problems because the 
well-being of the street people and drug addicts is more important.

To those who live next door, it appears we have gone from discarding 
street people to treating them as being more deserving than other 
Victorians. We cannot serve their needs to the detriment of the rest 
of the community.

The city and Island Health have many hurdles to jump before getting 
federal government approval for injection sites, especially if the 
new federal government does not change the regulations it inherited 
from its Conservative predecessor. However, they should not think the 
federal Liberals are the only people whose approval they need.

They will have to show neighbouring residents and businesses that 
there is an effective plan to both serve the drug users and minimize 
the collateral damage that such facilities tend to create.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom