CLEMENT SLAMS CMA OVER INSITE

Injections Allowed; 'Profoundly Disturbing:' Health Minister

Aaron Derfel, Canwest News Service

MONTREAL - Tony Clement, the federal Health Minister, assailed the
Canadian Medical Association yesterday for supporting Vancouver's
supervised drug-injection site, arguing that allowing heroin addicts
to shoot up is against their profession's code of ethics.

"I find the ethical considerations of supervised injections to be
profoundly disturbing," Mr. Clement said in a speech, given at the
CMA's annual meeting in Montreal, that drew angry reaction from doctors.

"Is it ethical," he asked rhetorically, "for health-care
professionals to support the distribution of drugs that are of
unknown substance, or purity, or potency -- drugs that cannot
otherwise be legally prescribed? If this were done in a doctor's
office, the provincial college [of physicians] would rightly be investigating."

Mr. Clement added that "the supervised injection site undercuts the
ethic of medical practice and sets a debilitating example for all
physicians and nurses, both present and future in Canada, who might
begin to question whether it's all right to allow someone to overdose
under their care."

Recent statements by the CMA endorsing Insite were "dangerously
misleading" and promoted the idea that there were safe ways to use
illegal drugs, he said.

"Clearly, we are on a slippery slope here. Already there are people
saying injection sites are not enough, that government should give
out heroin for free. Others are now calling for 'inhalation rooms'
for people who smoke their drugs," Mr. Clement said.

"I feel our government is now drawing the line in a place with which
Canadians are comfortable, and I continue to review new information
as it comes forward."

He said Insite did not provide "health care for the living" but
"palliative care for the dying. Insite offers no hope. It is a
surrender to a culture of disease and death."

Mr. Clement did not go so far as to call for the closure of Canada's
sole supervised drug-injection site, which was established in 2003 as
a pilot project. However, he recommended the centre's $3-million
annual budget be redirected toward drug treatment and providing
housing for sex workers in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside.

His remarks drew a heated response from a number of CMA delegates.
Dr. Bonnie Cham, chairwoman of the CMA's ethics committee, accused
the Minister of manipulating medical ethics to advance the
Conservative government's political agenda.

In a news conference after the speech, Brian Day, the CMA's outgoing
president, said Mr. Clement was "off base" in criticizing physicians'
medical judgment on the issue. He noted that internal polling by the
CMA found that nearly 80% of doctors favour supervised injection
sites, also known as harm-reduction facilities.

"Harm reduction, along with treatment, enforcement and prevention,
are the four cornerstones of a comprehensive and integrated
public-health strategy," Mr. Day said.

"The primary purpose of the supervised safe injection site is not to
cure those who are addicted, but rather to prevent the transmission
of communicable disease and reduce overdoses and provide an entry
point into the health-care system for those who might not otherwise
have a way in."

In June, a B. C. Supreme Court judge extended Insite's exemption from
drug laws and said it could remain open indefinitely. The federal
government is appealing the ruling.

That same month, former Quebec health minister Philippe Couillard
said the province is considering setting up a safe-injection facility
in Montreal. Mr. Clement refused to comment on that possibility
yesterday, saying it was purely hypothetical.