Re: You Can't Get Clean If You're Dead, Chris Selley, July 23 Drug users are not the only beneficiaries of harm reduction interventions like Vancouver's Downtown Eastside safe injection program. Look no further than Canada's southern neighbour for tragic examples of drug policies that are best avoided. Researchers at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control estimate that 57% of AIDS cases among women and 36% of overall AIDS cases in the United States are linked to injection drug use or sex with partners who inject drugs. This preventable public health crisis is a direct result of misguided zero tolerance laws that restrict access to clean syringes. Can Canada afford to emulate the harm maximization approach of the former land of the free and current record holder in citizens incarcerated? Robert Sharpe, policy analyst, Common Sense for Drug Policy, Washington, D.C. [end]
Re: Supervised injection sites editorial, July 12. Safe injection sites have been shown to reduce the spread of HIV without increasing drug use. They also serve as a bridge to drug treatment for an especially hard to reach population. Drug users are not the only beneficiaries. Look no further than the United States for examples of anti-drug strategies best avoided. U.S. Centers for Disease Control researchers estimate that 57% of AIDS cases among women and 36% of overall AIDS cases in the United States are linked to injection drug use or sex with partners who inject drugs. This preventable public health crisis is a direct result of zero tolerance laws that restrict access to clean syringes. We don't think it makes a safer, healthier city [end]
To those who have expressed such strong opinions about not needing a supervised injection site in Ottawa I ask why? Why is it that you feel so strongly that the nation's capital does "not need one"? The principal reason people don't want these injection sites in the city is because they don't approve of the idea of the use of drugs or how it will look to the public if this project is approved. The truth of the matter is that a project like this is designed to help people with drug addictions to help prevent the spread of disease and used needles floating around and to introduce new preventive strategies and intervention programs into the community. [continues 95 words]
Sandy Hill health centre pushing for safe-injection site The push for Ottawa to get a controversial supervised injection site is gaining speed. The Sandy Hill Community Health Centre on Wednesday said it's working to submit an application for an exemption from federal drug laws in order to open a "safer consumption site." "We think we could do more for people in the community and drug users themselves," said Rob Boyd, director of the Oasis program at the Sandy Hill Community Health Centre. [continues 343 words]
Harm reduction program still discretely providing services Somebody walked into the W.G. Davies building on Wednesday morning, rang the buzzer on the door in the back left corner of the lobby and exchanged their used needles for new, clean ones. As many needles as they wanted. That was one of 55 monthly visits to the needle exchange program. "That could be repeat visits or it could be people getting for other people," said Joann Blazieko, communicable disease coordinator for Five Hills Health Region (FHHR) Public Health. [continues 453 words]
Thirteen years ago, Cpl. Ed Toatley was working undercover for the Maryland State Police when he was murdered during a botched drug deal in Washington, D.C. Ed was a close friend of mine, and his tragic death Oct. 30, 2000, began my quest to end America's longest war, the failed war on drugs. That quest led me to the newly formed Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP), an international nonprofit organization for law enforcement professionals embarking on journeys similar to mine, where I have served as executive director for the past three years. [continues 636 words]
Medicine Hat provides more needles to drug users per capita than anywhere else in Alberta, according to a recent CBC News report. "Between 15,000 to 18,000 needles are given out per month to about 200 regular clients," said Barbra Madonka, program manager at Medicine Hat Cares Centre, a downtown drop-in centre that opened in 2010 and offers a needle exchange, counselling and referrals. "Last year we gave out 175,000 needles." She says her colleagues in Calgary are surprised by the numbers for the size of this community but adds this does not necessarily mean there is a higher use of drugs in the Gas City. Madonka says there are some transients using the services, including some from as far away at Ontario, who stay a while. [continues 359 words]
Editor, the Times: Despite the fact that the current mayor and council in Abbotsford favour caving in to the demands of Fraser Health and pressure from drug addicts, our city is now being sued by Pivot Legal Society. Peter Bernstein, their lawyer agrees that "Access to health care for drug users should not be up for a public vote." We are talking here about illegal drug use. Abbotsford is being pressured to provide clean needles and assorted paraphernalia to enable people trapped in the horror of addictions to stay in that trap. [continues 204 words]
Town joins growing list of communities battling intravenous drug use The town of Torbay is attempting to lock illicit drug use out of its community one area at a time. As a result of discarded needles being found in the watershed area at North Pond, the town has erected a sign informing the public that in a few weeks the area will be gated and secured. Deputy Mayor Geoff Gallant says he's not gullible enough to believe it doesn't happen in Torbay, but until it was brought to council's attention in May he wasn't aware needles were being disposed of in public areas. [continues 941 words]
Three injection drug users filed a lawsuit on Tuesday over an Abbotsford bylaw that has banned harm-reduction services such as clean needle exchanges for the past eight years, arguing the prohibition violates their Charter rights and needlessly puts them at risk. The lawsuit comes as councillors in the Fraser Valley community study the future of the bylaw, which health officials say is preventing them from providing harm-reduction services in an area with some of the province's highest rates of overdoses and infections of HIV and hepatitis C. [continues 488 words]
Three injection drug users filed a lawsuit Tuesday over an Abbotsford, B.C., bylaw that has banned harm-reduction services such as clean needle exchanges for the past eight years, arguing the prohibition violates their charter rights and needlessly puts them at risk. The lawsuit comes as councillors in the Fraser Valley community study the future of the bylaw, which health officials say is preventing them from providing harm reduction services in an area with some of the province's highest rates of overdoses and infections of HIV and hepatitis C. [continues 751 words]
A bipartisan bill from Reps. Nickie Antonio, D-Lakewood, and Barbara Sears, R-Maumee, would authorize the establishment of syringe exchange programs. House Bill 92 has been crafted to "promote harm reduction and a path to treatment," Antonio said. Under the bill, a local board of health would be permitted to establish a syringe exchange program for injection drug users to reduce the transmission of blood-borne pathogens and specifies that the program's cost is the board's responsibility. The measure would allow a board of health to contract with a private, nonprofit organization to operate a program on the board's behalf. [continues 771 words]
Photographer Tony Fouhse Helps Bring Addicts Back From the Brink Photographer captures the road back from drug addiction The phrase "Live Through This" sounds like a dare, with an implied but real chance that you will not live through whatever "this" is. At one point during Tony Fouhse's two-year project, titled Live Through This, the odds were 1 in 2 that Stephanie MacDonald, the subject of his photographs, would die. The odds were surely higher when MacDonald, then a 22-year-old junkie in Ottawa, checked herself out of hospital too soon after brain surgery, against medical advice, and slipped away into the night to score whatever would get her high. [continues 925 words]
Expansion of harm-reduction services at a sobering centre at Cook and Pembroke doesn't mean it's being turned into a fixed needle exchange, Fernwood residents have been told. And residents should have no concerns that the centre will generate the same types of problems that plagued Cormorant Street when a fixed needle exchange operated there, said Cheryl Damstetter, Vancouver Island Health Authority's acting executive director for mental health services. "Information that's out there is that somehow this a standalone, fixed site needle exchange. No it is not," Damstetter told an information session at the Fernwood Community Association hall. [continues 501 words]
Fernwood will get a needle exchange without public consultation. At a meeting on Wednesday, a panel of "stakeholders" announced that old services were being "enhanced" with "health supplies," according to their own information sheet. It was explained to the standing-room-only crowd that the panel saw no need for public consultation. A multitude of complaints about the former needle exchange that closed in 2008 led them to believe that they could navigate change without further input. Members of the public expressed concern that the site is located near two schools: Vic High and George Jay. The panel responded by saying that Vancouver-based Supervised Consumption Services has been demonstrated to function well within larger communities. The concept was met with optimism from the audience. [continues 65 words]
Editor, the Times: As a scientist, it was disturbing to read that the ongoing discussions regarding needle exchange in Abbotsford arrived at a simple difference of opinion regarding the benefits and shortcomings of these programs. The reality is that needle exchanges have been rigorously studied, and there now exists a large body of scientific facts concerning these programs. The evidence consistently shows that, contrary to the opinions of Tim Williams of Life Recovery, needle exchanges reduce HIV risk behaviour and do not encourage drug use. [continues 158 words]
Since he can remember, Geoff has made a conscious decision to search out clean needles as he continues to fight his heroin addiction. Now that the 39-year-old homeless man with Hepatitis C uses a one-stop service where he can exchange his used needles for new ones, his health concerns are lessened. Geoff, who didn't want his surname published to protect his privacy, found a needle exchange in the neighbourhood in which he panhandles and sleeps on the streets. "I was one of the original people to start using it," he said by telephone Tuesday as he walked down a noisy alley. [continues 508 words]
A day after David Purchase died, friends remembered him Tuesday as a pioneer who fought HIV-AIDS on the streets of Tacoma and gave birth to what became an international health movement. A day after David Purchase died, friends remembered him Tuesday as a pioneer who fought HIV-AIDS on the streets of Tacoma and gave birth to what became an international health movement. With a borrowed TV tray and a folding chair, Purchase began the nation's first exchange of dirty needles for clean ones in 1988 while sitting on a street corner in downtown Tacoma. [continues 722 words]
Public Forums Start Next Week The debate over harm reduction measures in Abbotsford is surfacing again as the city undertakes two public forums to examine the controversial issue this month. Abbotsford Mayor Bruce Banman said the focus of the meetings is to present all sides of the issue and get public input on the topic of harm reduction. "The Fraser Health Authority has said it totally disagrees with Abbotsford's harm reduction policy," said Banman. "They believe we are putting people in harm's way with contamination via needles." [continues 347 words]
WORCESTER - A Hopkinton man accused of stabbing a police officer with a hypodermic needle in the ladies' room at a Park Avenue supermarket pleaded not guilty at his arraignment Monday morning in Worcester Superior Court. [name redacted], 29, of 14 Pinecrest Village, Hopkinton, was indicted Dec. 13 on charges of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, trespassing and disturbing the peace stemming from a July 16 incident at the Price Chopper at 221 Park Ave. According to a police statement on file in Central District Court, where Mr. [name redacted] was initially charged, Officer Ryan Stone went to the Price Chopper July 16 to investigate a report of a man in the ladies' room who was refusing to leave. Store employees said there was blood on the floor in the ladies' room and expressed concern for their safety and that of their customers, according to Officer Stone's written account. [continues 316 words]
