B.C. MAY FIGHT TO KEEP INSITE LEGAL

Injection Site an Important Facility, Health Minister
Says

B.C. Health Minister George Abbott said Monday the province may
intervene in a court case that could determine the future of
Vancouver's supervised injected site.

Abbott said he is disappointed by the federal government's decision to
appeal a B.C. court ruling that would let the Insite facility stay
open indefinitely.

"We have not made a decision [about intervening in the appeal] yet,"
he said. "I've had a couple of brief discussions with the
attorney-general and we need to have more before we reach some
conclusion on whether it's valuable or appropriate for us to apply
[for intervenor status]."

The legal status of the injection site is critical for B.C., he
said.

"It is a very important case involving a health facility we believe is
important in the continuum of care for people with addictions and for
people with mental illness."

Abbott also made it clear he thinks more injection sites might be
needed. "Insite is an interesting model and a model with considerable
potential," he said.

"We believe the results to date have been such that we should consider
them."

Last week, B.C. Supreme Court Judge Ian Pitfield ruled that Insite can
stay open indefinitely because it provides a form of health care to
which drug users have a right. He said Canada's drug laws on
possession and trafficking, from which the injection site has to get
an exemption to operate, were too broad and arbitrary.

Pitfield declared those laws invalid, but suspended that declaration
for a year to allow the federal government a chance to rewrite them in
a way that allows Insite to keep operating without exemptions.

The court case was initiated by the PHS Society, the non-profit that
runs Insite, and two drug users, Dean Wilson and Shelly Tomic.

The site's current exemption, first granted by a Liberal government in
2003, was due to run out on June 30.

Abbott said he was surprised that federal Health Minister Tony Clement
not only decided to appeal but that he and others in his government
came out with very strong statements indicating they don't believe the
scientific research surrounding Insite has proved that it benefits
drug users or the community.

"I was disappointed by that. I had hoped to talk to the health
minister before he made that decision."

Abbott said that in past discussions with Clement, he had never heard
the federal health minister make remarks as critical of Insite as the
ones he made last week.

Clement told the House of Commons health committee in Ottawa the
science supporting Insite was mixed and that he did not support what
it was doing.

"In my opinion, supervised injection is not medicine. It does not heal
the person addicted to drugs," Clement said in his prepared remarks.

"We can do better than simply warehousing people addicted to drugs for
palliative care."