UN DRUG AGENCY CALLED 'STOOGES' OVER CRITICAL REPORT

Safe Injection Site Violates Treaties, World Body Says

Supporters of Canada's harm-reduction approach to drug addiction are
livid that a United Nations monitoring body wants Ottawa to slam the
door shut on Vancouver's safe-injection site -- and put an end to
distribution of "safe" crack kits to addicts.

In an annual report by the International Narcotics Control Board
released this week, the UN board said distribution of the kits in
some areas of Canada contravened part of the UN's Convention against
illicit traffic in narcotics.

The board said the drug programs violate international drug control
treaties to which Canada is a party.

The disposable crack pipe mouthpieces -- usually rubber-tipped glass
tubes -- are given to addicts to avoid the spread of blood-borne
diseases, including HIV and hepatitis, when addicts share pipes.

Vancouver's downtown eastside safe-injection site, known as Insite,
allows addicts to inject their own heroin and cocaine under the
supervision of a nurse, who provides them with clean needles.

Medical journals report that Insite, the only facility of its kind in
North America, has reduced overdoses and blood-borne infections.

But five years into operation, the site's fate is uncertain. It
operates under an exemption from Canada's Controlled Drugs and
Substances Act, which runs out in June. The Conservative government
has not said whether it will extend the exemption.

But the UN report incensed supporters of Insite. Senator Larry
Campbell, a former mayor of Vancouver and a former coroner, called
the narcotics board "stooges for a failed U.S. war on drugs" and told
reporters he would personally block Insite's doorway if officials
tried to close it down.

Vancouver Mayor Sam Sullivan also dismissed the board's report by
insisting it simply didn't understand Insite's success.

"The way we've approached drug addiction worldwide has been a
failure," Sullivan told reporters. "We need new approaches. We need
to be open to innovations."

Thomas Kerr, a research scientist at the B.C. Centre for Excellence
in HIV-AIDS, voiced concern that Ottawa would seize on the report as
an excuse to close Insite.

Richard Pearshouse, speaking for the Canadian HIV-AIDS Legal Network,
said the report wasn't based on "scientific evidence that supports
these as a public health intervention."