Poll: Safe Inhalation Rooms

Activists in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside want a "safe inhalation room" for people who smoke crack cocaine, building on the success of Canada's first safe injection site for those who shoot up with other drugs.

The injection site has been open for a year, operated by the Vancouver Coastal Health authority to serve many of the estimated 4,700 injection drug users in the troubled neighbourhood.

However, Health Canada has never approved the drug-smoking room it contains. That stays empty while thousands of addicts smoke crack, heroin and crystal meth outside in dangerous, dirty alleys.

This fall, the health authority is expected to make a formal request to Health Canada to let the smoking room open.