NO ROOM FOR IDEOLOGY AT INSITE

The clock is ticking on the future of one of Canada's most important
and unique attempts to deal with drug addiction, and perhaps that's a
good thing.

It may very well be good that the federal government is sending
signals it will soon no longer support Vancouver's supervised
injection facility (Insite). Getting Ottawa out of the picture may
actually create some certainty and stability for the controversial
facility in Vancouver's notorious Downtown Eastside.

That's because Health Minister George Abbott has said the province
supports the facility remaining open, which suggests the B.C.
government is willing to operate it itself should the feds decide to
bail on the controversy.

Insite, which opened its doors in 2003, has been allowed to exist
because the federal government has granted it an exemption from the
country's narcotic laws (illegal drugs, notably heroin, are allowed to
be on the premises, thus necessitating the need for an exemption from
prosecution).

But the current exemption expires on June 30. A host of supporters of
Insite have pooled efforts to keep the facility open -- including a
court challenge currently being heard -- and goodness knows they're
pushing a big rock up a steep hill when it comes to dealing with the
federal government.

It's clear the whole philosophical and medical underpinning of Insite
- -- which recognizes that drug addiction is primarily a health issue,
not a criminal one -- makes the Harper government very uneasy.

I've written before about the completely ineffective war on drugs that
stresses enforcement and prohibition. Despite that ongoing failure,
ideological conservatives and right-wingers still cling to the notion
that simply catching drug addicts and throwing them in jail solves the
problem.

Their approach is wrong and there is very little positive evidence to
back up their assertions that they're on the right track. Still, the
Harper gang has left enough clues that they prefer to keep the
ideological blinkers firmly in place.

The fact that Insite's effectiveness has been cited in 20 articles in
leading peer-review publications such as Lancet and the New England
Journal of Medicine seems to matter little. What also seems to not
register are studies by the Vancouver Coastal Health Authority and
noted criminologist Neil Boyd from Simon Fraser University showing
numerous benefits arising from Insite's existence, such as fewer drug
overdoses and reduced transmission of HIV/Hep C viruses.

Instead, opponents of Insite are reduced to relying on a couple of
Vancouver police officers who don't like the fact the facility exists.
And opponents are left quoting from a single, dubious study that
suggests the experiment has been a failure. But when one looks
further, it turns out the study's author is the research director of
the Drug Prevention Network of Canada, a prohibition group led by
former Conservative MP Randy White.

For the federal government to give greater weight to such a flawed,
questionable report over such esteemed and credible sources would be a
travesty -- but then again, maybe that would be a good thing. If we
can get rid of ideological, moralistic attitudes shaping our approach
to dealing with drug addiction, then maybe we can make some progress
on that bleak landscape.

So a word to Ottawa: hand this facility over to the B.C. government. Let it
continue its operations and good work.

Keith Baldrey is chief political reporter for Global B.C.