SUPPORT FROM DOWN UNDER

Backers of the city's supervised injection site are trumpeting
support from a group of politicians in Australia.

Members of the Australian Parliamentary Group for Drug Law reform
have written a letter urging Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper
to keep Insite, Vancouver's safe injection site, open. Some members
of that group, like Harper, are Tories.

"What this says is this is beyond political dogma," said Gillian
Maxwell, spokeswoman for Insite for Community Safety, a coalition
group that includes Vancouver's chief of police and the city's three
most recent mayors.

"It's people from all points of view supporting Insite carrying on."

Insite is North America's first legal injection facility. Currently,
it's operating as a scientific pilot project under an exemption from
Health Canada. That exemption is up in early September.

That, combined with perceived negative comments from Harper during
the federal election campaign, has worried local supporters.

FACT BOX

Insite has:

- - 7,278 registered users

- - 26% women

- - 453 overdoses

- - 0 fatalities

- - 607 daily average visits

source, Vancouver Coastal Health, April 1, 2004 - March 31, 2006