VANCOUVER DRUG ADDICTS INVITE HARPER TO TOUR ALLEYS

Appeal Made To Secure Safe Injection Site

VANCOUVER - The Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users has invited
Prime Minister Stephen Harper to tour the alleys of Vancouver's
Downtown Eastside so he can see the devastation of drug abuse for himself.

The invitation was issued as advocates continue a campaign to urge
Health Canada to extend the exemption that allows North America's
only safe injection site to operate legally.

The exemption expires in September.

"Come on down and walk the alleys with us and we'll show you what we
mean," said spokeswoman Ann Livingstone.

"I think he'd (Harper) be shocked," she said. "Let's at least have a
dialogue on what's going to be done. It's astounding, the filth and
the people, how neglected and abandoned they are in these alleys."

A group of Australian Parliamentarians called on Harper on Monday not
to close the safe injection site for heroin addicts.

Harper has not committed one way or the other on such a move but
Health Canada officials must decide soon whether or not to extend the
three-year exemption to Canada's drug laws.

"(Insite) ... has saved lives and transformed the response to drug
users from health and social services," says the letter from 110
members of members of the Australian Parliamentary Group for Drug Law Reform.

An assessment of the research results to date from the site are being
reviewed, said a statement from Health Canada.

"The government of Canada will not consider any other similar
projects until the assessment of the research results has been
completed," said the statement issued Monday.

Proponents of Canada's first safe-injection site for heroin addicts
have maintained they don't understand why Harper isn't committed to
the facility that appears to have saved lives and slowed the spread
of diseases such as HIV.