FEDS HAVE 'HEAD IN SAND'

Closing Safe Injection Sites Will Cost Lives, Critics Tell Conference

Prime Minister Stephen Harper's plans to close a Vancouver safe
injection site will increase the spread of HIV and cost lives, critics say.

"The prime minister should make life-and-death decisions based on
evidence, not on ideology," said Joanne Csete, executive director of
the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network, which is spearheading the fight
to keep the Vancouver site open and to have needle exchange programs
in prisons.

"The Canadian government's head is in the sand on the problem of HIV
among people who use drugs and prisoners. In Vancouver, there is a
mini-Africa in our backyard."

The safe injection site helps prevent the spread of disease and
prevents overdoses, Dr. Julio Montaner, director of the B.C. Centre
for Excellence in HIV/AIDS, said yesterday at the 16th International
Conference on AIDS.

"There is a significant avoidance of (using) health care resources.
This is an important effort to manage infection and I'm extremely
concerned," Montaner said.

Needle exchange programs in prison would protect the guards, Csete said.

"Prison staff see it as a security measure because prisoners won't be
carrying around home-made sharps to inject themselves," she said.

Jim Motherall spent many years behind bars and says HIV infection is
out of control in jails.

"Most prisoners are going to get out and when they are HIV positive,
it's going to affect the whole community," he said.

Evidence shows that safe injection sites do not increase the use of
drugs and can stop the spread of disease, former U.S. president Bill
Clinton said at the conference.

"We need a climate where policy makers are free to act on evidence.
When decisions are based solely on ideology, you will certainly get
bad decisions," Clinton said.

Ottawa is still studying "policy reviews" regarding the safe
injection site," Health Minister Tony Clement said.

"We will have a decision before Sept. 12 because that is when the
licence for the Vancouver site expires," he said.

The injection site has been operating for three years.