WRONG QUESTIONS ABOUT DRUG SITES

A lot of the rhetoric around the question of whether or not to close
the Vancouver pilot-project drug injection site is missing the point.

The key question, which must be considered by any community including
Kamloops when it comes to dealing with drug addiction, is "Has the
site reduced harm?"

In other words, are drug addicts safer, is the east end neighbourhood
safer, has crime diminished?

Instead, opponents of the site insist on focusing only on the
question, "Has drug abuse been reduced?"

That's a fair question, and one that needs to be answered, but not
necessarily in the context of safe-injection sites. Ideally, a drug
addict would enter the site, shoot up, be handed a pamphlet about the
downsides of drug addiction, and change his life around right then and
there.

Definitely, funding is needed for programs to get people over their
addictions and get back to being productive members of society. That
requires very specific health-care and counselling programs, plus job
training and maintenance.

Harm reduction is aimed at doing exactly what it says. It is a
practical approach to a social issue that simply can't be resolved.
Its purpose is to keep people safer than they would otherwise be. In a
sense, it's an interim step for addicts.

RCMP say they can't support safe-injection sites without clear
evidence that they help people kick their addictions. The Vancouver
Police Department, which is responsible for policing in the area in
which the site operates, supports the site.

Indeed, there's ample evidence the Vancouver site has been a success,
but of course it depends on your definition of success. Those who
regard drug addicts as criminals who must be punished will never
accept legalized drug injection.

On the other hand, there is actually some data to suggest addicts who
use the safe-injection site are more likely to seek help to get out
from under their addictions. That could well be because their lives
become more normalized than they were on the street.

The federal government has a decision to make. The Vancouver pilot
project was scheduled to end Sept. 12 but the Harper government has
decided to give it another year and a bit before deciding its ultimate
fate.

If it says yes at the end of 2007, there will be pressure to open more
such sites, and the country will be faced with a national dialogue on
the current state of our drug laws and treatment facilities. Cities
like Kamloops, with our own hard-drug addiction issues, will be swept
into that debate at long last.

If Harper says no, we'll be left with the same old things -- police,
the courts, and inadequate social programs -- that haven't worked.