UN WANTS TO SHUT DOWN SAFE-INJECTION SITE

United Nations Also Takes Aim at 'Safe' Crack Kits

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 Narcotic Drugs.

The board said the programs violate international drug-control
treaties that Canada signed.

The disposable crack-pipe mouth pieces -- 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 after it opened, 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
program.

Sen. Larry Campbell, a former mayor of Vancouver, 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.

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.