INSITE APPEAL IGNORES COMMON SENSE, SCIENCE, MORALITY

The ruling on the future of Vancouver's safe injection site should
change the way we talk about drugs and addiction.

It will certainly reveal that those who cling to the status quo --
like federal Health Minister Tony Clement, who announced plans to
appeal the decision yesterday -- place prejudice ahead of evidence and the law.

Justice Ian Pitfield was ruling on an injunction application aimed at
preventing the federal government from closing Insite. The injection
site needs an exemption from drug possession laws to operate, so
people can bring their drugs to the centre. Vancouver Coastal Health
Authority would likely not continue funding if the site was operating
illegally.

With barely one month to go before the current exemption was to
expire, the government wouldn't say if it would renew it.

The critical aspect of the judgment rested on one main issue. Would
shutting down Insite violate the users' charter rights to "life,
liberty, and security of the person"? And if it did, was the
violation of their rights justified by the greater good? Governments
are allowed, under the charter, to strip individual rights with a good reason.

Answering those questions raised issues fundamental to the way we
think about drugs and addiction.

First, Pitfield had to decide if Insite did protect individuals'
charter right to safety and security. If not, then closing it would be fine.

Both sides presented evidence. The federal government established
that a scientific debate continues about whether harm reduction or
abstinence-based approaches are most effective.

But overall, the evidence and research showed that allowing people to
inject in a clean, supervised site reduced death and illness (as well
as public disorder). Dealing with the sickness of addiction is part
of health care; removing it would violate the clients' right to
personal security, just as denying care to a lung cancer patient
would, the court found.

The federal government also raised an important argument. People
choose to use drugs, its lawyers argued. The charter of rights
doesn't provide any protection if people make bad choices.

Pitfield reviewed the medical evidence supplied by both sides. And he
found that Insite users weren't making a choice to inject drugs.

"However unfortunate, damaging, inexplicable and personal the
original choice may have been, the result is an illness called
addiction," he found.

"While there is nothing to be said in favour of the injection of
controlled substances that leads to addiction, there is much to be
said against denying addicts health-care services that will
ameliorate the effects of their condition," Pitfield found. "Society
does that for other substances such as alcohol and tobacco."

The decision was based on the evidence. But anyone who looked at the
life of a hardcore injection drug user wouldn't see it as a choice.
How many people want poverty, homelessness, a one-in-six chance of
contracting HIV, almost certain hepatitis, dangerous sex work,
abscesses, fear and a constant need to get more drugs?

That left one issue for the court. The government can remove
individual rights for the greater good -- if it can show a pressing reason.

The federal government argued that the allowing Insite a continued
exemption would increase drug trafficking and might violate
international treaties.

But it had little evidence. And drug laws, Pitfield ruled, could
still prohibit possession while allowing exemptions for programs like Insite.

That's an important point. The government can still do as much as it
wants to arrest dealers or users. It can ramp up prevention programs
and add treatment centres. Insite is no barrier to any of those efforts.

Pitfield's ruling doesn't say society should condone drug use. It
does recognize that addiction is an illness -- a potentially deadly
one -- and proper health care can help people survive, while reducing
the damage to the community.

It is a good starting point for rethinking the way we treat those
suffering from that illness, and the ways we can help stop others
from stumbling into that terrible sickness.

Footnote: Insite is supported by Premier Gordon Campbell and Health
Minister George Abbott and is funded by the province. Vancouver's
mayor and police force also back its continued operation.