SENATOR: 'ADDICTION AN ILLNESS, NOT A CRIME'

Supervised injection sites are common sense, the right approach on
grounds of compassion, saving lives and saving money, Senator Larry
Campbell told a TRU audience Tuesday.

The Liberal appointee was mayor of Vancouver when the city introduced
the first supervised injection site in North America.

He was invited to speak by the TRU human rights committee on the
broader topic of the four pillars approach to drug addiction and treatment.

"Addiction is an illness, not a crime," he said, provoking scattered
applause. "I smoke cigarettes, for God's sake. I'm a junkie."

A former RCMP drug squad officer, he outlined the four pillars of
education, treatment, harm reduction and enforcement.

"Four pillars is a way of looking at addiction that's different," he
said, first pointing to the importance of factually based education
rather than scaremongering.

People need to be able to make informed decisions and treatment must
respond to the needs of addicts.

"We don't have treatment-on-demand for addicts," he continued. "They
say, 'You've got to be clean or we won't take you into the program.'
" Yet someone who is clean doesn't need treatment.

Harm reduction means, 'I'm going to keep you alive because you don't
know what you're taking."

Supervised injection sites assure harm reduction based on clear
statistical results, he argued. A rough estimate suggests there are
more than 650,000 narcotic injections in Vancouver annually.

"We've had about 400 overdoses in there," he said of the Vancouver
site. "Guess what? No deaths.

"It's common sense, it's real common sense. Do you know what common
sense is? It's doing right. If it feels right, nine times out of 10
you're going to be on the right track."

Safe injection sites in tandem with the provision of 250 units of
social housing at the site of the former Woodward's building were his
proudest achievements as mayor, Campbell said.

In September, Health Canada put off making a final decision on
whether to extend Vancouver's supervised injection site, called
Insite, for another 31/2 years. Health Minister Tony Clement said at
the time additional studies must be conducted into the impact of
supervised injection sites. Insite will remain open until Dec. 31,
2007 while further studies are done.

Well known for his outspoken style, Campbell gave a characteristic
delivery. Evidently Ottawa has not changed him.

"I like people here because Kamloops is a no-bullshit town," said
Campbell, who visited many times when serving as B.C.'s top coroner.
"The people are always straight up with you."

After accepting the senate appointment from former prime minister
Paul Martin, he was told he would represent Kamloops as well as
Vancouver in the upper house.

"If they'd given me an option, I don't think there's another city I'd
rather be twinned with."