ADDICTS HAVE RIGHT TO SAFE, LEGAL INJECTION SITES

Ottawa is wrong to appeal a British Columbia Supreme Court ruling
that extended a government-funded safe-injection site for junkies.
Instead, it should have done its duty and resolved the case once and
for all.

Sidestepping the thorny issue of federal-provincial jurisdiction, the
court was right to deny Ottawa its request to shut down the Insite
program, was right to support extending the pilot project's mandate
and was right in saying that the long-term issue must be resolved
with laws, not by the courts.

Health Minister Tony Clement voiced reasonable objections, saying
that Ottawa should not be in the business of injecting junkies with
heroin, sending out wrong signals to kids. There is also the
sensitive issue of our international commitments to combat drugs.
But these questions have been amply answered by research, notably
that of Thomas Kerr of the B. C. Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS.
In fairly exhaustive surveys, he has found that providing a
relatively safe environment for longtime hard-drug users has neither
increased the incidence of drug use nor promoted the use of
ever-harder drugs.

There is no contradiction or hypocrisy between helping junkies and
combatting either the trade in illegal drugs or their use. No one can
reasonably say that drug trafficking will disappear completely soon.
That being the case, those who get hooked need treatment, and
Vancouver's pilot program has, by all accounts, done an excellent job
of containing the spread of communicable diseases associated with
injections from dirty or shared needles, principally AIDS/HIV and
Hepatitis C.

The court argued that denying care to addicts violates their basic
right to life and security. That's sensible. Hardcore addicts have no
less right to the best health care than anyone else. Instead of
fighting it obstinately every step of the way, Ottawa should amend
its laws -and attitude -to enshrine that principle.