SAVING INJECTION SITE IS A MORAL OBLIGATION

At a press conference immediately following his public address at the
XVI International AIDS Conference in Toronto, former U.S. President
Bill Clinton said that "we need to create an environment where
policymakers are free to act on the evidence," rather than being
swayed by ideological or political pressure.

That need has never been more apparent than it is right now in
Vancouver, as the city continues to await word about the future of
Insite, Canada's first legal supervised injection site, which is due
to close on Sept. 12 unless the federal government renews its
exemption under Canada's drug laws.

Journalists were expecting to question federal Health Minister Tony
Clement about the matter at a press conference on Monday, but the
conference was abruptly postponed. Officials have said that the
postponement was to ensure that they present "the best possible
announcement," but they have given no word on when the press
conference will be rescheduled.

That, combined with previous statements made by Prime Minister
Stephen Harper, has led to much speculation that the Conservatives
will bow to political and ideological pressure and pull the plug on the site.

But if Clement wants to make the best announcement possible -- and if
the Conservatives are committed to creating an environment where
policy is made on the basis of evidence -- then Clement will announce
the continuation and expansion of the site.

Even more important, Clement ought to make the announcement, not on
Sept. 12 when the world has gone home, but this week at the
conference, where he will face world leaders, scientists, activists
and the media.

Concern about the developments this week led to a hastily called
press conference on Tuesday that was attended by representatives of
the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network, the Vancouver Area Network of
Drug Users, and the B.C. Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS, which has
been providing scientific evaluations of the site for the past three years.

Julio Montaner, director of the centre, repeated his earlier
statement that the site is "the single most successful project I've
ever been involved with," and noted that the evidence in favour of
the site is "irrefutable."

Indeed, centre researchers have published more than a dozen studies
in peer-reviewed journals, including top flight periodicals like The
New England Journal of Medicine and the Lancet, all attesting to the
benefits of the site. The published studies found that Insite led to
a significant decrease in public disorder, that Insite users were
less likely to share needles, that the site was predominantly
attracting high-risk drug-users, that there has been no increase in
drug-related crime since the site opened, that the site is not a
negative influence on those who wish to stop using, and that it might
even facilitate entry into detox and treatment.

Consequently, virtually everyone who has looked at the evidence has
thrown their support behind Insite, including Vancouver Police Chief
Jamie Graham, who was skeptical at first. Similarly, while the RCMP
originally opposed the site, a recent RCMP evaluation requested by
Harper reportedly favoured its continuation.

One is left to wonder, then, why Ottawa continues to delay in
announcing its decision. Even if it considers moral objections
against the site more important than the empirical evidence in favour
of it, Thomas Kerr, a professor of medicine and the principal
scientific evaluator of the site, noted that "it's immoral to ignore
the evidence to date."

Or to put it more starkly: When asked what would happen if the site
is shut down, Diane Tobin of VANDU said, "I'll start going to a lot
more funerals again."

We simply can't allow this to happen. Clement and the Conservatives
have a moral obligation to keep the site open.