RCMP OVERLOOK SCIENTIFIC STUDIES

The RCMP has shrugged off $1.5 million of federally funded,
peer-reviewed research into Vancouver's injection-drug centre,
Insite, along with two $10,000 studies the police agency commissioned
itself. In an August 28 news release, RCMP noted that "until research
is completed, we oppose the expansion of the SIS [supervised
injection site] pilot project."

All the studies suggest that Insite is effective at reducing harm and
should continue. The agency serves an average of 607 users per day,
according to its own numbers.

Mark Townsend, the director of Insite partner the Portland Hotel
Society, told the Straight? the RCMP's reasons for ignoring the
research are far from academic.

"The science is in, and it's not rocket science; it's pretty basic,"
he said. "But it becomes political. The RCMP hired guys they thought
would give them what they wanted, and now they're embarrassed. So
they got their PR guys to write this for them."

Townsend was referring to literature-review studies by SFU
criminologists Raymond Corrado and Irwin Cohen. Their studies were
leaked to the media, but the RCMP did not release them publicly.

At the beginning of the pilot, Ottawa provided $1.5 million to the
Vancouver Coastal Health Authority to study Insite over three
years--the only money the federal government has given to the project
so far. The VCHA contracted the BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS
to do that work.

Now the research has been published in seven peer-reviewed articles
that appeared in such renowned publications as the New England
Journal of Medicine, the British Medical Journal, the Lancet, and others.

Townsend explained that effectiveness studies are often built into
social-service agencies' budgets, at about $40,000 to $70,000 each.
Usually, he said, they are completed by consultants. Insite's review
by a team of specialized epidemiologists gives the research
additional credibility, he said. Governments "never" require agencies
in the Downtown Eastside to justify their programs with peer-reviewed
research, he said.

Normally, large policing agencies take scientific research very
seriously, UBC psychiatry instructor Kulwant Riar told the Straight.
"They have to look at the results," he said. "Is it working or is it
a waste of money?"

He also noted that research into social policy has to be done
continually; the long-term effectiveness of a program cannot be
scientifically determined up-front. In reality, he acknowledged,
social policy is almost always dictated by politics, though, rather
than science.

The RCMP's statement that it does not support the continuation of
Insite comes just two weeks before the federal exemption, which
allows the centre, expires (September 12).

The RCMP did not return the Straight's calls by deadline.