MONTREAL — Montreal's director of public health is recommending the creation of safe injection sites for addicts to shoot up under supervision.

In a report released today, Dr. Richard Lessard proposes that safe injection centres be set up inside existing health-care and community institutions.

Lessard is also recommending the creation of a mobile team of nurses to be deployed in neighbourhoods with the most needs.

He says safe injection services are necessary to address the high death rate of intravenous drug addicts and elevated rates of hepatitis C and HIV.

In October, Quebec's health minister gave the green light to these sites following a Supreme Court of Canada decision to keep the Insite safe injection clinic open in Vancouver.

Quebec City is also looking at the possibility of opening safe injection centres.