OTTAWA TO APPEAL B.C. RULING ALLOWING INJECTION SITE TO STAY OPEN

Clement Prefers More Drug Treatment, But Others Say Facility
Vital

OTTAWA - Ottawa will appeal the B.C. Supreme Court decision earlier
this week that ruled in favour of Vancouver's controversial
safe-injection site, federal Health Minister Tony Clement said Thursday.

The minister told the parliamentary health committee that he would ask
Justice Minister Rob Nicholson to appeal the ruling handed down
Tuesday by Justice Ian Pitfield as soon as possible.

Clement called the scientific evidence about the site "mixed," but
said public policy was "very clear."

"A better thing to do is to treat people, to prevent people from going
on the drugs in the first place," he said.

Pitfield had ruled that Canada's trafficking and possession laws were
unconstitutional when applied to addicts using the facility and that
it should be allowed to remain open under current drug laws for a
year, even without a federal exemption.

That year should give the federal government time to rewrite its laws
to allow for medical use of illegal drugs if they are part of a
health-care program, he said.

The current exemption -- offered under the federal government's
Controlled Drugs and Substances Act -- is set to expire June 30.

Insite, North America's only safe injection site, first opened its
doors in September 2003 to provide a facility for supervised injection
drug use to addicts in Vancouver's troubled Downtown Eastside.

Before Clement's announcement, the health committee had heard from a
large panel of witnesses, most of whom supported the clinic.

Committee chairwoman Joy Smith mentioned that one witness who opposed
the site had chosen not to attend the meeting because he feared for
his safety after being threatened by about 20 addicts outside of his
Vancouver office.