REGIME CHANGES LEAVE INSITE ON THE HOOK

In the flurry of excitement that accompanied the announcement that
Ottawa was allowing Vancouver's supervised injection site (Insite) to
continue another 16 months, one significant fact was overlooked.
There is even less to what the Tories have promised than you may have thought.

For Canada to meet the requirements of international treaties it has
signed regarding heroin, Insite has to be classified as a scientific
experiment. To validate that status, there has to be research taking
place measuring the effects of the program on the 600 or so
injections that occur at the site.

When the original negotiations took place to open Insite more than
three years ago, Larry Campbell was mayor and the Liberals were in
power in Ottawa. As Campbell tells it, he said to Ottawa, if you want
the research, which would cost $500,000 a year, you pay for it. And
they did, for a total of $1.5 million.

Meanwhile, Vancouver Coastal Health paid to run the site at a cost of
$2 million a year.

As a result of the most recent federal announcement, for the next 16
months Vancouver Coastal will still pick up the bill for operations.
But the feds, now Tories, have refused to pay for the research, all
the while insisting it must continue in order for Insite to stay open.

That was made clear in a letter dated Sept. 11, 2006 and signed by
Federal Minister of Health Tony Clement. He informed Vancouver
Coastal, "the Government of Canada will not provide funding to
conduct the research."

Vancouver Coastal's lead bureaucrat on Insite, Heather Hay, has
confirmed that, as a result, her organization is on the hook for
about $700,000. It doesn't have the money in its operating budget
and, at this point, hasn't figured where the money will come from to
deal with this downloading.

Even though Victoria is awash with cash and clearly supports Insite,
there is reluctance to knock on their door. Private funding agencies
are a possibility, but until the money is secured, Insite is in
jeopardy of closing.

We know Prime Minister Stephen Harper was never a fan of this project
or the principles of harm reduction as we understand them. He finds
the United States' so-called War on Drugs a more attractive model
especially since he's doing everything to ingratiate himself with
George W. Bush.

The 16-month extension just gets Harper past the next election. His
minister of health refers to it as a "deferred decision."

We have a different government in Ottawa and, of course, we have a
different mayor, Sam Sullivan.

Sullivan makes a great deal of the fact that he has easy access to
the prime minister's office; that he regularly discusses his lengthy
shopping list of requests with federal ministers.

For all the frequent flyer points he continues to rack up, you may
well wonder just what he's accomplished, particularly on this issue.

He was among the throng supporting the continuation of Insite. But he
left it to others to do the passionate campaigning.

For all of his connections, all we got was a deferred decision and we
got stiffed for the research money.

Clement tipped Sullivan first on the announcement Insite would be
extended 16 months. He obediently broke the news saying he was "very
pleased" and followed that with a similarly obsequious press release.

He has said nothing about the research money.

Meanwhile Harper and his minister of health are seeking counsel from
the RCMP and the Canadian Professional Police Association. Both are
dead set against supervised injection sites.

As for Sullivan, he's suddenly decided to go on another road trip-a
convenient diversion from criticism within his own party that he
seems to lack direction. He wants to see how cities in Europe deal
with drugs and social disorder. As for the details, they are still
being worked out.