OTTAWA DEBUNKS FIVE 'MYTHS' ABOUT SAFE-INJECTION SITE

Federal Health Minister's Top Adviser Targets Vancouver's Insite Facility

OTTAWA -- The top policy adviser to Health Minister Tony Clement
ordered federal officials to debunk five "myths"about Vancouver's
Safe Injection Site, just before Clement announced his refusal last
year to extend the site's permit.

The facility called Insite opened in 2003 as a safe place for drug
addicts to shoot up.

The Debunking the Myths document was delivered to Jo Kennelly,
Clement's senior policy adviser, only days after other Health Canada
internal briefing notes and media analysis described the facility's
progress and public support in positive terms.

The document obtained by The Vancouver Sun declared there were five
widely held but false public views: that safe injection sites are
"commonly used" in other countries; they operate "all across Canada;"
they are legal; they present "a complete solution" to drug-use harms;
and that the safe-injection site "has the complete support of the community."

Each of the so-called myths -- there is no indication which
individuals or groups were espousing these views -- are then all shot down.

"While there is support for the Vancouver supervised injection site,
not everyone is in agreement that it is the most effective way to
address the harms associated with injection drug use in the city's
Downtown Eastside," the document states without identifying any of the critics.

The document says safe injection sites represent "one possible
approach" to reducing the harm associated with drug abuse, notes that
the facility would be illegal without an exemption, points out that
there is only one in Canada, and stresses that only seven other
countries allow them: Germany, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Spain,
Norway, Luxembourg, and Australia.

Clement, raising questions about research on safe injection sites,
announced on Sept.1 that he was rejecting the Vancouver Health
Authority's request for a 3 1/2-year extension on the permit that was
first granted in 2003. He deferred the government's decision on its
fate until the end of this year.

The approach taken in the Debunking the Myths document does not
appear to augur well for efforts in the capital region, backed by
Victoria Mayor Alan Lowe, to open a safe injection site here.

Nor does the blunt assessment given by Clement in a letter, also
obtained by the Sun, addressed to Vancouver Coastal Health Authority
president Ida Goodreau.

Clement said the purported positive benefits were "questionable" and
said Insite's alleged impact in reducing overdose deaths is
"difficult to determine."

Supporters of safe injection sites have alleged that Prime Minister
Stephen Harper is ignoring research, including a new report released
last week, and is being driven by ideology as he plans to unveil a
tough new National Drug Strategy that excludes safe injection sites.

Clement spokesman Erik Waddell said Friday that the myth-busting
document was developed in reaction to the assertions of Vancouver activists.

"The five statements in that document are representative of
statements made to our office by various community groups in
Vancouver," Waddell, who didn't identify the groups, said in an e-mail.

"The responses to the statements in the document were written by
Health Canada officials when our office asked them to do a fact check
of the statements."