Research done

Re: “Vancouver’s easy drug access may have helped kill Monteith,” Licia Corbella, Opinion, July 19.

Licia Corbella’s question regarding initiation of illicit drug use at Insite has already been independently evaluated. A study published in the American Journal of Public Health by researchers from the University of British Columbia in 2007 found that, on average, Insite users had been injecting for nearly 15.9 years prior to using Insite.

The study, which surveyed 1,065 individuals, found one person reported performing their first injection within the safer injecting facility and 14 other individuals had initiated injection drug use since the opening of Insite. All of them did not report performing their first injection within the facility.

By way of comparison, the study reported that, on average in Vancouver, approximately 100 street youth initiate injection drug use each year.

Instead of repeating research that has already been done, policy-makers, service providers, journalists and the public should be encouraged to work with researchers to take stock of what is known about problematic substance use and to develop evidence-based responses that improve the health and safety of individuals who use illicit drugs and the broader community. Michaela Montaner, Vancouver

Michaela Montaner is a research assistant at the B.C. Centre for Excellence in HIV/ AIDS and communications coordinator for the International Centre for Science in Drug

Policy.