Safe injection site a success, says top health official (CBC)

Safe injection site a success, says top health official

WebPosted Sep 21 2004 10:02 AM PDT

CBC

VANCOUVER - The head of the Vancouver Coastal Health Authority says the city's safe injection site is working better than expected.

The authority's CEO, Ida Goodreau, says more drug users than expected are visiting the site – and many are being directed to treatment aimed at weaning them off heroin.

"Two to four referrals per day to other types of treatment," she says. "And that might be counselling, it might be addictions treatment, it might be medical care."

A report on the site's first year of operation will be released on Thursday. But Goodreau previewed the findings at a conference on drug addiction in Vancouver on Monday night.

The Vancouver clinic is part of a three-year, $3.7-million pilot project funded by Health Canada and the B.C. government.

Alex Wodak is the director of alcohol and drug services at St. Vincent's Hospital in Sydney, Australia. And he says the harm-reduction approach to addiction is the right way to go.

"If it is easier to get help from drug treatment than a drug dealer, it's possible for that community to make progress," he says.

"On the other hand, if it is easier to get help from a drug dealer than it is from drug treatment, then that community is going to go backwards."

LINK: Vancouver's Four Pillars Drug Strategy

Meanwhile, Vancouver Mayor Larry Campbell says the next supervised injection site may target specific groups of people.

"It may be, for instance, for aboriginal First Nations It may be a site for sex trade workers," says Campbell.

"It may be something on a smaller basis, but directed at a specific target group in the population."

He says he doesn't know when a second site may open.