Harm Reduction Victoria’s Kim Toombs holds out syringes and water for distribution Sunday on the corner of Pandora and Vancouver, in the designated no-go zone. The occasion was the six-month anniversary of the closing of AIDS Vancouver Island’s Cormorant Street needle exchange. Toombs and others say much of the zone is where street outreach workers need to be to connect with clients.
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By Rebecca Aldous - Victoria News
Published: December 01, 2008 8:00 PM
The ‘no-go’ zone has got to go, says Harm Reduction Victoria.
The designated downtown zone in which no mobile needle exchange or drug supply distribution can occur is compromising the health of those in need, said Harm Reduction Victoria member Kim Toombs.
Designated by the city’s needle exchange advisory committee after the closure of AIDS Vancouver Island’s fixed-site needle exchange on Cormorant Street in May, the zone spans west to east from Blanshard Street to Chambers Street and north to south from Balmoral Avenue to Yates Street, the heart of the IV drug users’ community.
“The ‘no-go’ zone is very limiting for people trying to provide service, because that’s where everybody is,” Toombs said.
Our Place, the hub facility for homeless services, is within the zone, she added.
Harm Reduction Victoria representatives flirted with the rules Sunday by handing out needles at a symbolic fixed site set up near the corner of Pandora and Vancouver streets, just up the block from Our Place.
Newly elected Victoria Coun. Philippe Lucas said the ‘no-go’ zone compounds problems with an already insufficient mobile needle exchange program and “renders a crisis situation worse.”
In the month following the closure of the fixed-site exchange, needle distribution dropped by roughly 50 per cent, according to AVI statistics. The distribution rate had improved by late summer, but even then was still about 23 per cent below the fixed-site numbers.
The needle exchange advisory committee – it lists representatives from the city, the Vancouver Island Health Authority, AVI and the Victoria police – laid out excluded areas for the mobile exchange service to appease all members of society, said VIHA spokesperson Shannon Marshall.
The zones include areas around schools, open businesses, residences and community settings, including daycares, she noted.
“When we started the proposal for a mobile exchange, we recognized we needed to do consultation and that code of conduct was drafted with that in mind,” Marshall said.
VIHA’s efforts to find a suitable location for a fixed-site exchange have so far come up empty. VIHA recognizes a fixed site would be the preferred option for many stakeholders, Marshall said, and welcomes input from the community about proposed locations.
raldous@vicnews.com
