CLEMENT'S NON-DECISION ON SAFE-INJECTION SITE IGNORES THE FACTS

Without even visiting the Vancouver site, Canada's health minister has
made decisions regarding its future based on politics; clearly it's
time for the Harper Tories to dig their heads out of the sand

It's frustrating to watch the Harper government fumble and stumble
over the future of Vancouver's safe-injection site.

After months of waffling - and with less than two weeks before the
site's licence expired - Health Minister Tony Clement said he still
couldn't make up his mind. Instead of granting the three-year licence
extension sought for the Insite centre, Clement stalled. The centre
can keep going until he makes a decision by end of next year, he said.

It was a blatantly political move.

Clement's non-decision was announced on the Friday before the long
weekend, at 7 p.m. Ottawa time. He refused to answer any questions.
His handling of the issue suggests the Conservatives want to kill the
site, but are afraid it would hurt them politically. By stalling they
can keep their intentions secret until after the next election.

Every shred of evidence suggests the safe-injection site has achieved
its relatively modest goals without any documented negative effects.

The Insite project offers a clean, safe place for people to inject
their drugs. A nurse is there to deal with problems, help people avoid
infection or other medical complications and refer addicts to
treatment or services. Clean needles are available.

The alternative is to have addicts injecting in a flophouse or
alley.

The site, the first in North America, has been intensively studied by
health researchers. Last month, in Harm Reduction Journal, a report
found that it saves taxpayers up to $8 million a year.

Without Insite, there would have been 2,000 additional emergency room
visits for abscesses, infections and overdoses, the study found. About
100 of those visits would have resulted in hospitalization, using a
desperately needed acute-care bed for an average two weeks.

There were 453 overdoses at Insite. None resulted in death and few
required hospital care. Without the centre, 18 to 20 people would have
died and and about 100 would have required hospital care.

About 100 people were referred to methadone programs, for many a first
step toward dealing with their addiction. At the least, those people
will not be scrambling, panhandling and stealing to get money for drugs.

The centre, by cutting down on shared needles and other unsafe
practices, also reduced the spread of HIV/AIDS and Hepatitis C,
serious public health problems.

Other reviews done for the RCMP found there was no increase in crime
in the area. The centre did not create new drug users.

Health care costs reduced. Lives saved. People leaving illegal drug
use behind. No increase in crime or drug use. Support from the B.C.
government, he City of Vancouver and public health officials.

Surely continuing the program - and extending it to other centres
across B.C. and Canada where there is support - is a no-brainer.

Clement doesn't think so.

He wants more studies. In the news release announcing the decision, he
offered these crafted quotes.

"We believe the best form of harm reduction is to help addicts to
break the cycle of dependency," Clements is quoted. "We also need
better education and prevention to ensure Canadians don't get addicted
to drugs in the first place." Of course. There is likely not a sane
person in Canada - including the operators of the safe-injection site
- - who would not agree with those words. (And wonder why Clement wasn't
doing more in those areas.)

Safe-injection sites aren't some miracle solution that makes the
problem go away. People using the site are still struggling with their
addictions and the pain or emptiness or genetic bad luck that brought
them there. Their lives are still terrible, dangerous messes.

But the site works, by the most pragmatic measures. It saves lives,
prevents the spread of deadly diseases, frees up millions in health
care costs for other uses and helps some people get clean. All without
one real, demonstrated negative effect.

It's shameful that a government would, apparently, place politics
ahead of both sound health policy and peoples' lives.

Footnote: Clement has never visited the Vancouver safe-injection
site to see how it works. He did travel to Sweden and Denmark this
summer to look at drug policies in those two countries, including a
meeting with a Swedish lobby group promoting tougher drug policies.
Vancouver's experiment has attracted world attention; Clement should
have visited before making his decision.