NEW METHOD, SAME RESULT

In their criticism of Insite, Vancouver's supervised-injection
facility for intravenous drug users, federal Conservatives assert the
volumes of research citing the program's benefits are misleading; look
closely, some say, and you will notice that the same few authors -
read harm-reduction zealots - have been responsible for almost all the
reports.

It's a spurious criticism; these studies have appeared in
peer-reviewed journals. But it is a yet more flimsy argument after the
Canadian Medical Association Journal's publication of the latest
Insite-related research.

Dr. Ahmed Bayoumi, the lead author and a scientist at Toronto's Centre
for Research on Inner City Health, is an unfamiliar name to those who
have read previous reports on Insite. So is his co-author, Gregory
Zaric of the University of Western Ontario's Richard Ivey School of
Business. Their research was conducted along significantly different
lines from previous examinations of Insite, exploring the facility's
cost-effectiveness based on computer models. The only thing familiar
in the study is its result: further evidence that Insite benefits both
drug abusers and the broader community.

According to Dr. Bayoumi's and Mr. Zaric's research, Insite stands to
add 920 life-years and save nearly $14-million over 10 years based
solely upon the reduction of needle-sharing. These results would be
still better, if other factors, including referrals to treatment and
the prevention of overdose deaths, were factored in. A projected 1,191
cases of HIV and 54 cases of Hepatitis C would be prevented over that
time. And given the costs of treating the effects of HIV infection,
the authors said, the facility is cost-effective under almost all
potential circumstances.

Although there is a new Health Minister, the federal government's
response was familiar. "We need basics like prevention and treatment
rather than experimental research," a spokesperson for Leona Aglukkaq
told a reporter in an e-mail.

But the last word really belongs to Dr. Bayoumi and Mr. Zaric: "The threat
to close
Insite appears to be based more on emotional reactions to the facility and
drug addicts
than to cost-effectiveness analyses." The Health ministry's predictable
reaction goes to
prove their point.