From Lynn Perrin. Council members may recall that I sent them information on the City of Vancouver Harm reduction strategy leading up to the 2010 Olympics. Please take a look at this current information as you decide how to address needle exchange and other harm reduction options in Abbotsford:
VANCOUVER – Harm reduction not a war on drugs has reduced illicit drug
use and improved public safety in what was once Ground Zero for an HIV and
overdose epidemic that cost many lives, says a 15-year study of drug use
in Vancouver’s impoverished Downtown Eastside.
The report by the B.C. Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS found that from
1996 to 2011, fewer people were using drugs and, of those who were, fewer
were injecting drugs, said Dr. Thomas Kerr, co-author of the report and
co-director of the centre’s Urban Health Research Initiative.
Read more at:
http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2013/06/24/bc-drug-report-harm-reduction-war-on-drugs_n_3492206.html
Lynn Perrin BGS MPP
FairAll Consulting
www.fairallconsulting.ca