INJECTION SITE GETS AN EXTENSION

Ottawa Gives Insite More Time, But More Questions Need To Be Answered

DOWNTOWN EASTSIDE -- The federal government is giving Vancouver's
supervised injection site another 16 months to prove itself as an
effective way to fight drug addiction.

Insite will remain open until Dec. 31, 2007 to give federal health
authorities more time to conduct further studies, federal Health
Minister Tony Clement announced late Friday afternoon.

Without the extension, it would have closed Sept. 12.

"Do safe-injection sites contribute to lowering drug use and fighting
addiction?" Clement said in a news release announcing the extension.
"Right now the only thing the research to date has proven
conclusively is drug addicts need more help to get off drugs."

Because the much-anticipated announcement came late in the day at the
start of a long weekend, a time politicians often use to bury news,
opposition politicians and members of the medical community who have
been fighting to keep the site open, continued to have concerns about
the site's ultimate survival, and what they infer as government
mistrust of research already conducted.

Site advocates had been seeking a three-year extension to September 2009.

"Are they trying to slip something under the radar?" asked NDP MP
Libby Davies, whose Vancouver East riding is home to Insite, which is
located in the Downtown Eastside. "We have done lots of research . .
. why do we need to do more?"

Davies says the last-minute announcement suggests the federal
government is not fully on board with the experimental project.

The call for more research just buys more time for the government to
find an excuse to close down the site, said Davies. "We have to be
very worried that they want to do more research."

Former federal health minister and Liberal Vancouver South MP Ujjal
Dosanjh was also suspicious of the announcement.

"I'm shocked and disappointed at what appears to be a cynical
approach by [Prime Minister] Stephen Harper," said Dosanjh.

"We don't need to do more research. The research is here."

Doctors say they have provided sufficient information to ensure
continued support of the site.

Dr. Julio Montaner, director of the B.C. Centre for Excellence in
HIV/AIDS and president-elect of the International AIDS Society, said
the government asking for more research tells him it doesn't trust
the research he and his fellow physicians have already conducted.

"They are saying that our research is not sufficiently at arm's
length," says Montaner. "One can only worry if there is an
ideological or morally-based argument . . . to say we can't live with
it [the research]."

While Montaner says he is happy the site will remain open another
year, he has strong reservations about some of the issues implied in
Friday's announcement.

"We are not talking about people with light drug addictions," he
said. "We are very strong supporters of the four pillars approach."

The safe-injection site is only one part of the harm reduction
strategy that needs to be addressed by the federal government,
according to site operators.

"Obviously this is good news," said Mark Townsend, community worker
with the Portland Hotel Society, one of the groups operating the
site. "But it is not just about a supervised injection site."

Townsend hopes further inspection by the federal government will open
the window for other harm-reduction programs, such as pre-tox beds,
which are made available to drug users waiting for space in detox clinics.

He also hopes federal representatives, including Harper, will visit
Insite to witness first-hand the part it plays in reducing crime and
preventing drug-related illness and death.

Mayor Sam Sullivan, a strong advocate of Insite, said he was
extremely pleased with the announcement and is looking forward to
showcasing the city's innovative approach to treating drug addiction
as part of his commitment to reducing crime and disorder by 2010.

"It shows the federal government has listened to the community," said
Sullivan. "I really do believe [Harper] wants to understand the
problem and is open to new ideas."

"It gives us time to make the case to Ottawa for why we need a new
approach to fight drug addiction."

The Vancouver police department also issued a statement in support of
the announcement to extend the site's operations.

However, prior to Friday's announcement, police chiefs at the
Canadian Police Association convention in Victoria urged the
government to "cease all financing of the supervised injection site
program and invest in a national drug strategy to combat drug
addiction which includes education, prevention and treatment."

Along those lines, Clement said in his release that he would be
working with the justice and public-safety ministries as well as the
Canadian Centre for Substance Abuse to implement a new national drug
strategy that will put greater emphasis on programs that reduce drug
and alcohol abuse.

Until such a strategy is in place, the release said, the government
would not entertain any more applications for supervised injection
sites elsewhere in Canada.