VIHA to add new needle sites in Victoria
The Vancouver Island Health Authority met with Victoria City Council today to unveil the latest model for harm reduction in the region.
But Councillor Charlayne Thornton-Joe says that contrary to the impression given in media reports, the idea of a fixed site has not been abandoned, merely postponed until the four new distributed model sites are up and running.
Fourteen percent of local IV drug users have difficulty disposing of used equipment according to new Federal Government research. Photo © by Leedman on Flickr.com.
Thornton-Joe says the sites are within City boundaries but are out of the Downtown core and may be co-located with other VIHA services such as health centres. Downtown continues to be served by the mobile exchange as well as low-key needle distribution and collection at social service agencies and other locations frequented by Victoria’s drug user network. She also says needle distribution from pharmacies continues to be looked at with the help of the Ministry of Health.
As for the need for a safe consumption site, Thornton-Joe says pending guidance from the Federal Government is needed before implementing what many say is a needed aspect of harm reduction and a key part of the Four Pillars approach to mitigating the disorder caused by drugs. Vancouver’s InSite operates with an exemption from Health Canada’s drug policies.
Once the four secondary distribution sites are established, VIHA will then attempt to create the long-anticipated permanent needle exchange facility. It is this fixed site VIHA intends will contain front-line addiction counseling for users wanting to quit drugs.
On the subject of why the recently disbanded Needle Exchange Advisory Committee was not part of the site selection process, VIHA said last November the feedback gained over the last two years from the members of the Committee was sufficient to determine the workability of any site and that further consultation was unnecessary. This is a point of concern with some former Committee members who maintain ongoing community dialogue is an essential part of the successful operation of a needle exchange.
VIHA will announce the location of the four secondary sites once staff are informed and trained in needle exchange protocol.
It was also learned today that according to the latest data from the Federal Government’s I-Track study of local drug users, only 12 percent claim to have borrowed a used needle, down from 25-to-30 percent four years ago. Reasons include education, better access to supplies and a move away from injectable drugs to inhaled or smoked drugs like cocaine. Eleven percent of users reported difficulty in accessing harm reduction services and 14 percent found it hard to dispose of used rigs.
Click here to discuss needle exchange issues on VibrantVictoria’s discussion forum.
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Responses to this Headline or Article
The five most recent replies to VibrantVictoria.ca's discussion forum's Needle Exchange - Updates, Opinions and Other... thread, the most relevant thread to the above headline or article:
Baro
Aug 05, 2010 at 8:51 pmBuy the old Blethering place, re-name it to a needle exchange/tea house.
aastra
Aug 14, 2010 at 12:57 pmQuote: As a resident of 760 Johnson Street, plans for a needle exchange literally next door to our home brings grave concern.It's funny, just a few years ago people were fretting about how that building was going to ruin the neighbourhood. New condominiums? Uproar. Needle exchange? Crickets.
aastra
Aug 14, 2010 at 1:02 pmMethinks there would be quite a lot of very ironic outrage if somebody were to propose a new condo building on the 900-block of Pandora. Condominiums ruin neighbourhoods, don't ya know.
heather h
Aug 18, 2010 at 12:33 pmHarm Reduction Victoria (HRV) was not contacted about this article. Not sure where the author got his information from.
Heather, HRV
sebberry
Sep 30, 2011 at 10:55 am
Quote:
OTTAWA — The Harper government said Friday it is disappointed but will comply with a unanimous Supreme Court of Canada ruling which concluded that the government's attempt to shut down North America's only supervised injection site violates the Charter of Rights.
The judges said the government's 2008 move to deny a permit extension to Insite, in Vancouver's downtrodden Downtown Eastside, was "arbitrary," threatened to undermine health and safety, and was unconstitutional.
