A recovering OxyContin user, Steve Reinheimer knows about the perils of addiction.
He's never used a needle, but says it's out in the open all over his neighbourhood.
“People just start putting needles in their arms, in their feet in their legs and their necks,” said Reinheimer.
Reinheimer says he supports setting up safe injection sites.
"First of all it gets those injecting off the street, second of all it gets them out of sight and third of all, you know they're using clean stuff," said Reinheimer.
The Winnipeg Regional Health Authority is part of a working group studying the idea. The group received a $15,000 federal grant to talk to drug users to see if a safe injection site is needed, where it should be located and what it should look like.
"We have a responsibility to ask the question about what can we do to support people who use drugs, a lot of people are expressing opinions but nobody has actually engaged with people who use drugs," said Shelley Marshall from the WRHA.
The health authority is a body within the provincial government. Provincial Health Minister Kelvin Goertzen has been cold towards safe injection sites and in a statement the province said a recent report it commissioned didn't show the need for one.
“The minister wants to help the greatest amount of people with the resources he has at his disposal. Experts such as Dr. Rush, author of the Virgo report, have told him there isn't enough evidence to suggest drug consumption sites meet that threshold at this time."
The Health Authority says that report didn't look specifically at harm reduction measures like safe drug use sites.
"From what I heard they didn't ask the right question to come to a conclusion either way,” said Marshall.
Reinheimer volunteers in his neighbourhood. He believes safe sites reduce risks, not just for the user.
"One of our big concerns is needles laying around playgrounds and things like that and I'll admit there's more than you think,” said Reinheimer.
The study is expected to be done before the end of the year.
