After years of fierce debate over whether London should create safe injection sites for drug users, researchers will take to the streets to seek answers.

A feasibility study is being launched by the Ontario HIV Treatment Network and the Regional HIV/AIDS Connection to sort out whether safe injection sites makes sense here, and if so, how they might be utilized best.

“I have seen too many people die of complications from injection drug use,” says Dr. Sharon Koivu, a physician with the London Health Sciences Centre and one of the principals behind the study. “We need to find ways to stop these tragic deaths and help people wherever they are on their journey to recovery.”

The history of safe injection sites in Canada is a narrow one: Vancouver has long had one while major cities such as Toronto, Montreal and Ottawa have all conducted feasibility studies.

But there had been no such studies in small and mid-sized cities until now — London and Thunder Bay will each conduct a study.

“What can work in Vancouver might not work here,” said Geoff Bardwell, who is co-ordinating the research.

Nationally, public health officials say the sites save lives because users get clean needles, nurses intervene for overdoses and the sites offer other health services that can place those users on a path to recovery. Many police have objected, concerned that the sites foster illegal drug use and attract criminal activity nearby.

There will be three key elements to the study, explained Bardwell.

Surveys will be given to those who use injectable drugs to learn what they use, where they use it, how they protect themselves now, how far they might go to get to a safe site and whether they might make use of other health services at the same time.

To help reach injection drug users across the city, researchers chose three former users to help distribute surveys, he explained.

Once the surveys are done, Bardwell will interview key stakeholders, including public health officials and police. Also giving input will be representatives of neighbourhood associations and downtown businesses.

The goals it to understand the potential benefits and risks. “We need to insure we’re taking into account everyone’s viewpoints,” he said.

Once the survey and interviews are done, researchers will host town halls, something Bardwell expects would happen in the summer or fall.

“We know that there are many concerns related to injection drug use, such as overdose, infectious disease, public injection and drug-related litter,” says Ayden Scheim, a study investigator based at Western University. “Our study will engage stakeholders . . . To see whether supervised injection services could play a role in addressing those concerns here in London.”

There’s no doubt safe injection sites have improved public health elsewhere, said Dr. Chris Mackie, the London region’s medical officer of health, but that isn’t the only issue.

“It’s very important not to rush into this sort of thing and (instead) to make sure it is a fit for the community,” he said.

jonathan.sher@sunmedia.ca

Twitter.com/JSHERatLFPress