Politics
Monday September 27, 2004
Vancouver "Safe" Drug Injection Site Claims "Success" with 600 Users a Day
Only 2.3 percent seeing nurses or counselors
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VANCOUVER, September 27, 2004 (LifeSiteNews.com) - North America's first 'safe injection' site for heroin users is being called a 'success' by organizers because as many as 600 users a day visit it.
Calling the addicts, 'clients,' a report on the centre's progress has said that the site is 'exceeding expectations' for the numbers using the site and 'client satisfaction.' However, the statistics collected over the last year show that only 2.3 per cent of the clients went to see a nurse or counselor, the rest coming to inject drugs or collect tax-funded equipment. The report said, "Visits to Insite for nursing care or counseling have been uncommon to date." The report says that between March 10th and August 20th, there were 107 overdoses among 72 clients.
In 1997 local government was shocked to discover that the HIV rate of intravenous drug users in Vancouver's downtown east side was among the highest in the world. Social workers from Seattle worried that drug abusers from their area would travel to Vancouver and bring the same rates of infection back with them.
Since that time the notion of harm reduction has led the thinking of Canadian social agencies. City officials estimate there are 12,000 intravenous drug users among the 1.3 million people in the greater Vancouver area. About 40% of the drug users have HIV or AIDS, and 90% have Hepatitis C. Despite the publicity of the Vancouver site, new detox facilities have been slow to appear.
The US Director of the National Drug Control Policy, John P. Walters and other American observers have been sharply critical of what they consider Canada's leniency on illegal drug use. In April of 2003, Waters called the idea "state-sponsored personal suicide."
Last week, Vancouver East MP Hedy Fry called for a similar approach to prostitution saying that by making prostitution a quasi-legal activity, 'sex trade workers' would be put at less risk of violence. The suggestion was countered by local rape counselors who said that women needed to be helped out of prostitution, not to have it made 'safer.'
Canadian Press coverage:
http://www.canadaeast.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20040923/CPN/43457026
Read previous LifeSiteNews.com coverage:
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2004/sep/04092305.html
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