INSITE REPORT INCLUDES POSITIVES AND CAUTIONS

Supporters Hope Findings Will Help Keep the Site Open

Vancouver's controversial safe-injection site prevents at least one
overdose death a year, has not created crime or increased drug use and
pays back as much as $4 in public benefits for every tax dollar spent
operating.

It also has the public's support.

Those were the findings of a panel of science and crime experts
assigned last year by federal Health Minister Tony Clement to assess
existing scientific research on Insite. The Downtown Eastside
supervised-injection facility opened in 2003 to provide a clean, safe
place for addicts to inject drugs, get medical assistance if they
overdosed and to get counselling and immediate treatment if they so
chose.

Also included was a look at information assembled on the site's social
impact.

The panel was assembled in late 2006 as local tension ran high over
the prospect the Tory government would close the centre.

Insite operates under a federal exemption from narcotics laws that
expires on June 30. Rita Smith, a spokeswoman for Clement, told The
Province a decision on extending the exemption will be made "some time
between now and June 30."

The panel's report, released Friday, was generally positive, although
it contained strong cautions that the mathematical projections and
calculations could be out, and that it was unsure of the assessment on
how much impact the site had on reducing HIV infection.

Its findings were greeted with cheers from the site's
supporters.

Sen. Larry Campbell, former mayor of Vancouver and an early backer of
the site, said Friday that the panel of scientists had simply found
what scientists have already found: The site helps.

Campbell has said in the past he would physically block the site's
doorway if Ottawa tried to close it and that the report should mean it
stays open.

Vision Vancouver Coun. George Chow, who initially opposed the site but
was won over by the harm-reduction argument, said Friday he expects
the findings to force the federal government to keep the site open --
especially when no alternatives are in place.

Mayor Sam Sullivan told The Province the panel's work showed the site
was "not part of the problem, it's part of the solution" and that he
wanted it to stay open to preserve the piece of harm reduction that it
represents.

The Vancouver Police Union was less impressed with the
findings.

In a statement, it argued that the report showed the site is
expensive, given the small minority of addicts it serves, and that it
has done little to reduce infection rates or overdose deaths.

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THE RESULTS ARE IN

The report states:

Insite injections account for less than five per cent of injections
in the Downtown Eastside, but it provided 220,000 clean injections,
"which is significant."

Insite costs $3 million per year to operate, or $14 per user visit.
It has a cost benefit of anywhere from 97 cents to $2.90 in benefits
per dollar spent on things like HIV prevention. When overdose deaths
prevented are factored in, that number rises to between $1.50 and
$4.02 per dollar spent.