TORIES BLOCKED NEEDLE SITES, DESPITE INTERNAL POLL RESULTS

56% of Canadians in Favour of More Injection Facilities

The Harper government went against advice contained in its own
internal opinion polling when it put a freeze on the creation of any
new drug-injection sites for hard-core addicts.

Just days before Health Minister Tony Clement's Sept. 1 announcement
that the government would stop, for an indefinite period of time,
considering applications to open injection sites modelled on the
existing one in Vancouver, Prime Minister Stephen Harper's top
bureaucratic advisers received a poll they had commissioned showing
six in 10 Canadians support the program.

In fact, the survey revealed that a clear majority -- 56 per cent
versus 38 per cent -- want the government to create more sites where
people can go to inject drugs and receive clean needles under the
care of medical professionals.

In British Columbia, home to the country's only safe-injection
program, support for additional programs stood at 64 per cent.

The survey of 1,407 Canadians was completed by Decima Research Aug.
21 for the Privy Council Office. It is considered accurate to within
2.4 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.

The country was split on the best way to treat drug addiction, with
45 per cent of Canadians saying that "enforcing the law and punishing
drug users" was the best way to proceed and 52 per cent opposed the
law-and-order approach. And seven in 10 also said the federal
government should emphasize prevention, enforcement and treatment,
rather than make it safer to use drugs.

However, 56 per cent said safe-injection programs are "a step
forward," while 38 per cent said they are a step backward.

"The interesting thing is that the public is ahead of the government,
as they most always are," said Liberal Senator Larry Campbell, a
former Vancouver mayor and an advocate of safe-injection sites.

"I really hope the government looks and listens to it. This isn't
about being stupid or doing anything out of the ordinary. It's simply
health care -- nothing more, nothing less."

The government announced that it would not grant licences to open new
injection sites in other cities such as Victoria and Toronto on the
same day that it announced it was putting off, until the end of 2007,
a decision on whether to extend the Vancouver injection site by
three-and-a-half years.

Mr. Clement said in a news release that there was insufficient
evidence the program reduces drug use and fights addiction. He said
additional studies are needed on how injection sites affect crime,
prevention and treatment.

Vancouver NDP MP Libby Davies said there is "not a shadow of a doubt"
in her mind that the Conservative government was determined to shut
down the downtown injection site.

"This is contrary to their whole agenda on drugs. They want to
promote a law-and-order agenda. They want to toughen criminal
sanctions against drug users," Ms. Davies said.

Erik Waddell, a spokesman for Mr. Clement, said the government is
working on a new drug strategy that will put "greater emphasis on
programs that reduce drug and alcohol abuse."