MISSING THE POINT

THE RCMP's decision to weigh in with an internal report criticizing
Vancouver's supervised injection site is an indication that more work
is needed - not so much on the injection site itself but on long-held
beliefs about drug use.

Produced this summer when the Harper government was considering
Insite's licence, the report voices the opinion that anything that
lowers the perceived risk of drug use is bad, because it could
encourage both addicts and potential new drug users, who no longer
have to worry about overdosing or contracting HIV/AIDS.

That kind of ideological analysis, based on next to no actual
evidence, would be laughable if it wasn't apparently being given
consideration in Ottawa.

Leaving aside the question of whether addicts are usually carefully
weighing their situations before sticking needles in their arms, the
report misses the point of Insite, which isn't to make drugs either
scary or not, but to reduce the harm associated with them. So far all
the studies - as opposed to anecdotal observations cited by the RCMP
- - have suggested that it's working.

Addicts are rarely scared into quitting. Prohibitions - on drugs or
booze - have also been largely failed experiments.

The injection site is an attempt to try a new approach - one that
considers addiction as a medical, rather than criminal, issue. It
deserves a chance, and it deserves to succeed or fail on its own
merits unencumbered by institutional prejudices.