OPERATORS GO TO COURT TO PROTECT B.C. INJECTION SITE

VANCOUVER -- With just two months to go before its doors may be
closed by the Conservative government, operators of North America's
only supervised injection site for users of illegal drugs have gone
to court to stay open.

The facility saves lives, reduces harm to drug addicts and increases
their motivation to seek treatment, lawyers argued in B.C. Supreme
Court yesterday. As a result, they said, federal drug laws against
possession of heroin and cocaine should not apply there.

"The criminal approach leads to death. Harm reduction leads to life,"
said John Conroy, representing the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users.

The controversial injection centre, known as Insite, has been
operating under a special judicial exemption from prosecution, but
that is scheduled to run out at the end of June.

Site advocates fear it will be not be renewed by the Tories because
of ideological opposition to condoning the use of illegal drugs, even
at a medically supervised safe injection site.

"We are now heading into the beginning of May, and there is no
indication from the government what it intends to do," lawyer Monique
Pongracic-Speier said.

"The clinic has been operating in an atmosphere of continual
uncertainty ... with no chance for forward planning," she told Mr.
Justice Ian Pitfield. "There is an obvious and urgent need to decide
the case now."

In Ottawa, as he announced $3-million in spending on anti-drug ads,
federal Health Minister Tony Clement gave no hint when a decision
would be made on Insite's fate.

"That has to be made by the 30th of June. We're not making it today,"
he told reporters.

Ms. Pongracic-Speier was responding in court to the federal
government's attempt to have the matter put over to a full trial,
rather than have it decided during a 10-day hearing on the basis of
expert affidavits and submissions.

VANDU and the Portland Hotel Society, co-operator of the site, are
asking for a declaration that it would be unconstitutional to apply
federal drug laws against Insite users because the facility is a
place for medical care, and therefore, under provincial jurisdiction.

However, in a possible reflection of what the Conservatives may
eventually decide, federal lawyer John Hunter questioned those who
trumpet the site's benefits.

"The harm-reduction philosophy is not universally endorsed by experts
on addiction. It may well have harms," Mr. Hunter said.

He also played down the generally positive findings of an expert
advisory committee appointed by Health Canada to assess the pros and
cons of the site.

According to the lawyer for the federal Attorney-General, the
experts' report found no direct evidence Insite reduced drug overdose
fatalities, curbed HIV infection or reduced public disorder.

Mr. Hunter further noted that fewer than 5 per cent of all illegal
drug injections in the Downtown Eastside occurred at the 12-stall
site, where users inject heroin or cocaine in a supervised environment.

"It's very difficult to assess the evidence just on paper," he said.

He said there was a need to dampen the enthusiasm of proponents for
the site, which numerous peer-reviewed studies have found to lessen
deaths from drug overdoses, reduce the risk of transmitting HIV and
enhance the desire to seek detox programs without increasing crime in the area.

Mr. Hunter urged Judge Pitfield to find that "these drugs are
dangerous and harmful to persons who inject them, and that
self-injection is not a medical use of those drugs, but a person's
use of those drugs."

The judge said he would rule on the Attorney-General's call for a
full trial after hearing evidence in the form of affidavits and other
written material presented over the next two weeks. "I am mindful of
the urgency of this case, with the exemption due to expire at the end of June."

Ms. Pongracic-Speier began by submitting an affidavit from a drug
addict who said her regular contact with the staff at Insite had
prompted her to begin methadone treatment after 13 years of using heroin.

The addict listed numerous benefits from having a safe site for
injections, including the freedom to take one's time.

"If you're in the alley, you're always looking over your shoulder for
the police ... At Insite, it's much less stressful. You can find a
good vein and go slowly. You don't OD and your needles don't break."