STUDY REFUTES INSITE CRITICS

Injection drug users are more likely to enter detox programs after
using Vancouver's supervised injection site, suggests new research to
be presented today.

Researchers at the Downtown Eastside facility say the findings refute
the notion that the injection site, Insite, is encouraging drug use.

"It tells us Insite is fulfilling one of its key objectives, which is
to help people get into addiction services that can actually help
people stop injecting," said Dr. Thomas Kerr, one of the principal
investigators at Insite. "People have been concerned this site
enables drug use. This is further evidence that it is actually
connecting people to very important treatment services."

The findings, which Kerr will present today at the International AIDS
Conference in Toronto, comes from a study of 1,000 injection drug
users tracked in the year before Insite's 2003 opening and in the year after.

In the year before, roughly 80 people entered detox programs; that
number rose to about 160 in the following year. The findings also
come as the Conservative government in Ottawa debates extending
Insite's three-year legal exemption, set to expire in September.

Health Minister Tony Clement has stayed silent on the issue.

Either way, one man says he would be morally compelled to keep Insite
open, even if that exemption wasn't granted.

"What choice do we have? We know basically if we shut it people will
die, so we'll try our best to keep it open," said Mark Townsend of
the non-profit housing group Portland Hotel Society, which runs
Insite along with Vancouver Coastal Health.