The sober heroin and cocaine addict who started using at 15 is one of the first people to complete a detox program at Onsite,
the recently opened facility connected to North America's only safe-injection site, called Insite.

Like many drug addicts, Edwards, 35, has had a few cracks at detox but said knowing he can stay at the adjoining transitional housing unit
has given him the hope to finally get a life that includes a job and an apartment.

"Stress is a big thing in earl recovery so to eliminate as much stress as possible, by knowing that I had a place to go
that was clean and supportive, eliminated a whole pile of stress for me," Edwards said while sitting in the TV room of
the short-term housing area where he'll soon be living.

The commercial fisherman plans to go to school so he can become a substance abuse counsellor to help people like himself.

Edwards had been shooting up at Insite since the safe-injection facility opened in the summer of 2003 as a pilot project on the bottom floor.
Onsite is upstairs.

The fate of Insite remains in limbo after the federal government recently announced it can remain open until next June under an exemption
from Canada's drug laws that allows addicts to safely inject their own heroin under the watchful eye of a nurse.

Edwards has twice completed a detox program elsewhere to rid his body of heroin and cocaine.

This time, he said, he's done with dope.

The difference now is that some of the same staff he came to know at Insite are helping him through the difficult steps
to getting clean,, he said.

"Staff here bend over backwards to help you. There was not one need not met when I was in detox here.
Even as far as slippers that fit me, they ran out and bought slippers," he said.

"The word on the street is that now people know they can use at Insite and get help there as well. They don't have to
go anywhere," Edwards said.

On this day, Onsite's 12 beds are full and a schedule of daily activities starting after the 9 a.m. breakfast include
acupuncture, yoga and meditation and end with snacks and herb tea at 10 p.m.

Several bookshelves line the walls, some filled with board games, including one called "The World's Most Difficult Puzzle."

Nearby, a table of paints, brushes and pencil crayons are neatly organized and a work in progress, titled "Stormy Sea,"
awaits the painter who has taken a break for lunch.

Dr. Gabor Mate, the physician who works at the detox program along with several staff that include a nurse, said that while he's hesitant to describe,
the place as superior to other facilities, it is different.

"It's a lot nicer place," he said. "It has private rooms and bathrooms so people don't have to puke in front of each other.

"There's a real acceptance of people, about where they're at and there's a real attempt to be informal with them. It's clear that we're the professionals,
we're the authority, but it's not formal that way," Mate said.

one of the most common traits Onsite clients share is their lack of trust, which, over the years has taken a beating, often starting in early childhood, he said.

"These people have very little trust of authority figures because they've been hurt so often."

That's why the relationships users have established with staff over time at Insite just downstairs are so important, Mate said.

Statistically, though, the odds are stacked against addicts going through detox programs because the necessary social services,
including halfway houses, barely exist, he said.

But Onsite, with its short-term housing unit one floor above, is a first step in the right direction for people
who desperately need such programs, Mate said of the program that will receive provincial funding for one year.

Next June, the centre will release a report on a national treatment strategy that addresses a continuum-of-care approach
to improve substance abuse treatment across Canada.

It's something that's been in the works for two years as a part of a collaboration between federal, provincial and territorial governments,
along with law enforcement agencies and First Nations groups.

Jackie Douglas, who started detoxing at Onsite two weeks ago, said she was shooting up in back alleys and putting her life at risk
with dirty needles that have led to several deaths among people who contracted hepatitis C and HIV

Douglas, 47, said she's tried to get clean "umpteen times" through other programs but finally had enough when she decided
to switch from injecting heroin at Insite to getting on the road to recovery at Onsite upstairs.

"It was tough," she said of the emotional and physical toll she went through.

"I was sick a lot.

'Now I've put on weight and I'm feeling much better," said Douglas, a mother of two adult children in their 20s.