B.C. DRUG CLINIC SHOWING RESULTS, SUPPORTERS SAY

Urge Federal Government To Keep It Open

VANCOUVER - Supporters of North America's only sanctioned injection
site for drug addicts say the facility is saving lives and curbing
disease, but they fear that will not be enough to keep Canada's
government from closing it.

Vancouver's Insite facility gained international publicity when it
opened in 2003 as a research experiment and health officials are
anxiously waiting to hear if the Canadian government will extend its
exemption from drug laws and allow it to remain open after Sept. 12.

Insite's supporters say studies show the facility has prevented
overdose deaths and helped get addicts into treatment. They say it
also has slowed the sharing of needles, which is how AIDS and other
diseases are often spread.

But supporters of the facility worry its future may depend on
political ideology. Insite was opened under a previous Liberal
government in Ottawa and Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper
has objected to government sanction of illegal drug use.

"We're trying to make sure he [Harper] doesn't drive the car over the
edge of the cliff before he checks the science," said Mark Townsend
of the Portland Hotel Society, a non-profit group that helps run Insite.

According to the Vancouver Coastal Health Authority, which also
oversees Insite, the facility in the drug-infested Downtown Eastside
receives an average of 607 visits a day and has been used by more
than 7,200 people.

Addicts using drugs such as heroin and cocaine are given clean
needles to inject themselves in a room supervised by a nurse. After
shooting up, they go to a "chill-out room" before returning to the streets.

The federal government has provided about $500,000 per year to fund
the research.