FUTURE OF VANCOUVER'S SAFE INJECTION SITE RESTS WITH OTTAWA

Federal Health Minister To Decide Whether To Renew The Injection
Site's Exemption Under Canada's Narcotics Laws

VANCOUVER - The physician in charge of overseeing scientific
evaluation of North America's first and only safe injection site says
he may be forced to start laying off staff unless the federal
government makes a decision soon about the site's future.

Dr. Julio Montaner, head of the B.C. Centre for Excellence in
HIV/AIDS, said Thursday if the site in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside
closes, he will do his best to reassign the five researchers involved
in its scientific assessment, but he can't make any guarantees.

"People who have been valuable in the research field, we will do
whatever we can to keep them in the research field to the best of our
ability," said Montaner.

"But I don't know that we can. This [failure by the government to make
a decision] is creating a huge uncertainty among our own staff because
we can't provide them with job security.

"I have people, staff, contracts to worry about. There needs to be
some process here."

The site, known as Insite, will close Sept. 12 unless the federal
government grants it a continued exemption under Canada's narcotics
law. Without that exemption, it will no longer be permitted to provide
a safe location for users to inject drugs.

Erik Waddell, press secretary to Health Minister Tony Clement, said
the minister understands Montaner's concerns, "and that when a
decision is made, we will let him know."

However, Waddell couldn't say when that decision will be made -- or if
it would be made before the Sept. 12 deadline.

"I can't give you a timeline," he said Thursday. "But the minister is
actively engaged in this file."

He also said, despite rumours of the contrary, the decision will be
the health minister's alone.

On Thursday, representatives of the Insite for Community Safety
Campaign -- a coalition of groups and individuals working to save the
site -- met with a policy adviser from Prime Minister Stephen Harper's
office in Ottawa.

They said the adviser told them the decision to close or retain the
site would be made by Clement in conjunction with Justice Minister Vic
Toews and Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day.

Waddell said that wasn't true.

"The public safety and justice ministers have a concern where drugs
are involved, but the ministers will not be involved [in the
decision]. It's solely the health minister," he said.

Asked if the decision would be Harper's as well, Waddell said: "The
prime minister is interested in all decisions."

Harper told Vancouver reporters in June that he was waiting for
assessments from the RCMP and other agencies before making a decision
on the site, but he hasn't made a comment about it since.

Montaner also expressed frustration at Harper's decision to consult
those agencies when, he said, the prime minister has already been
presented with a full complement of peer-reviewed scientific papers
attesting to the site's success and efficacy.

"The [peer review] process is extremely harsh and painful, but at the
end of the day it gives you the ability to say this has gone to the
highest level of peer review," Montaner said. "I don't know if the
government gets that."

He added that reports of the kind the government is seeking "don't
have any validity beyond the opinion of the individual writing them.
It's like saying you're a good guy because your mother says so."

Scientific assessments of the site have shown that it has dramatically
reduced the number of overdose deaths in the Downtown Eastside, and
that users who use the site are more likely to seek treatment and
rehabilitation than those who don't.

Dr. Thomas Kerr, a research associate with the Centre for Excellence
and the co-principal investigator of scientific evaluations of Insite,
will present scientific findings around the site next Tuesday at the
16th International AIDS Conference in Toronto.