SUPPORT FOR INSITE GROWING

MLA Wants Province to Take Over Responsibility

Dean Wilson credits Insite with keeping him clean for the past month.

"It's because of this facility that I'm actually here and doing this
right now, otherwise I'd probably be on the other side of that door
out there, using in the streets," Wilson told reporters Friday.

Vancouver-Mount Pleasant MLA Jenny Kwan hopes a private member's bill
she will introduce next week will save the safe-injection site and
make more stories like Wilson's possible.

"It's time for us, once and for all, to put science and research and
the lives of people in the community ahead of partisan politics,
ahead of ideology and get on with it," Kwan said.

The federal government has twice extended a drug-law exemption for
Canada's only safe-injection program, but has expressed concerns
about its future. The current exemption runs out at the end of June.

Kwan said her bill, which would designate Insite as a health facility
under the sole jurisdiction of the provincial government, would
remove the need for a federal exemption.

"Insite is, in fact, a health service for the most marginal
community, people who need access to health care and treatment
services," Kwan said.

Patricia Daly, chief medical health officer for Vancouver Coastal, agrees.

"We consider Insite an extremely important part of the continuum of
care that we provide to our marginalized population here in the
Downtown Eastside," she said.

Roger Stewart, who has lived on the streets for more than 35 years,
said Insite makes addiction "above board and visible," and therefore
easier to treat.

"I'm just happy this place exists," he said.

Thomas Kerr, with the B.C. Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS, was one
of the scientists responsible for the scientific evaluation of the facility.

"The scientific support for this initiative is overwhelming," Kerr
said, citing more than 30 published peer-review studies that have
supported the program.

"We should not right now be discussing if this facility should
continue to operate, we should be asking the next question, which is:
"How can we ensure that Canadians living elsewhere can enjoy the
health benefits of such a facility?"

Keeping It Open

Leah Martin, an Insite worker, is driving across Canada to visit
various Conservative MPs' offices to get them to support Insite's operation.

Martin will put up poster-sized photos of Insite users as children
that read: "Before they were junkies, they were kids." She will also
be handing out information.

To join the campaign visit www.lettertotheprimeminister.ca or
www.communityinsite.ca.