INSITE GETS BRIEF REPRIEVE

Ottawa 'Playing Politics With Lives,' Critics Say

Supporters of Vancouver's safe-injection site were grateful for
yesterday's announcement of a six-month reprieve -- but accused
Ottawa of playing politics instead of permanently securing the drug
centre's future.

Federal Health Minister Tony Clement advised the Vancouver Coastal
Health Authority -- which operates Insite in the Downtown Eastside --
that the facility's exemption from drug laws has been extended until
June 30, 2008.

Clement said the move was to allow further research "on how
supervised injection sites affect prevention, treatment and crime."

Insite is a clean, safe, supervised site in the Downtown Eastside
where intravenous drug users can shoot up. Nurses and counsellors are
available to direct addicts to help where possible and will call for
aid in the case of an overdose.

Supporters of the site, which opened in 2003, dismissed Clement's
comment on the need for further research, but were happy he hadn't
pulled the plug on the centre, as had been rumoured.

Vivianna Zanocco, spokeswoman for Vancouver Coastal Health, said
research has shown it works.

"We think it does great work," she said. "We think that the research
carried out so far upholds that -- and we'd be willing to share . . .
that data with Health Canada."

Thomas Kerr, a researcher with the B.C. Centre for Excellence in
HIV/AIDS, also said the facility enjoys overwhelming support in the
scientific community.

And Vancouver police spokesman Const. Howard Chow said police agree
with taking drug use off the street and into a controlled space.

"Those who are shooting up in the playgrounds and outside will be
arrested," he said.

Vancouver Mayor Sam Sullivan said the extension was "not nearly
enough" and that he wanted to see council's request for a three-year
extension honoured.

In late June, a Mustel Group poll showed that 63 per cent of B.C.
residents wanted Ottawa to extend Insite's permit.

In the same month, provincial Health Minister George Abbott asked
Ottawa to approve three sites in Victoria as a research project.

Just last week, Premier Gordon Campbell urged Ottawa to leave the
centre open, calling it a "positive" service.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Stephen Harper, whose budget called for a
new, $64-million, national anti-drug strategy expected to be
announced this week, appears to have little stomach for Insite.

The new plan is expected to combine treatment and prevention programs
with tougher penalties for illicit drug use.

Vancouver council also agreed yesterday to press Ottawa to direct
money from Ottawa's pending drug program to the city's Four Pillars Approach.

The debate over Insite heated up in August, when Clement said recent
research had cast doubts on studies that found the site had reduced
needle-sharing and public drug use and encouraged addicts to seek treatment.

In response, a Toronto research scientist issued a statement, signed
by 130 prominent doctors and scientists, suggesting the government is
more concerned about ideology than science in regard to Insite.

Yesterday, NDP MP Libby Davies, who represents the Downtown Eastside,
called the extension a "victory for the community, for the people at
Insite and the scientific community, the medical community, who have
refused to give up on Insite."

Ujjal Dosanjh, a former federal Liberal health minister, called the
decision a "totally political" attempt to buy time.

"This is all about politics . . . and it is absolutely irresponsible
to put . . . politics before people's lives."