The war against drugs has not been able to prevent any further rise in the use of crack cocaine and crystal methamphetamine in Vancouver in the last 10 years as per a study released this week.

Researchers found that there was still uninterrupted use of highly addictive drugs and a high mortality rate among needle users due to the HIV infection.

The study was conducted by the Urban Health Research Initiative at the B. C. Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS.

The Vancouver news conference was told by the authors that a dramatic reduction had taken place in the sharing of syringes and in drug-injection rates, but a high mortality rate remained because of long-term HIV infection.

An argument has been raised for a similar site for the safe use of cocaine by the advocates of supervised drug-taking centres such as the InSite injection facility on Vancouver's Downtown Eastside.

Dr Evan Wood said that the high mortality rate for HIV-infected people is the price paid for past inaction. He added that the police must exercise their enforcement role but criminalizing users and arresting traffickers.