CLOSING INJECTION SITE INFRINGES ON CHARTER

KELOWNA, B.C. (CUP) - Dean Wilson is a 38-year -old heroin addict
inflicted with Hepatitis C. Shelly Tomic is disabled by depression
and arthritis in addition to her addiction to heroin. They are both
users of the Insite safe-injection site in Vancouver, and they've won
the battle to keep Insite open.

A new decision by the B.C. Court of Appeal has found that the laws
that make such sites illegal infringe on these persons' charter
rights to life, liberty and security.

Wilson and Tomic, alongside the Portland Hotel Society (PHS), which
operates the site under contract with the Vancouver Coastal Health
Authority, filed a statement of claim against the federal government
in 2007 claiming that closing Insite would violate the users' rights
to "security of the person."

"We were incredibly ecstatic at the ruling ... People were
overjoyed," said Liz Evans, PHS Executive Director.

She believes Insite is extremely valuable, she said, because, "if a
drug user walks in off the street, they can find belonging, dignity,
and access to services that are designed with them in mind".

The site addresses overdose rates as well as the rates of spread of
infectious disease through dirty syringes and unclean equipment.

The group had filed action when the temporary legal exemption that
had allowed Insite to operate was set to expire in 2008.

The B.C. Court of Appeal's 2-1 decision "represented the courts
actually supporting the information and the research and the reality
of what's actually happening every day on that site," Evans said, "as
opposed to validating what ultimately is this ideological rhetoric
which is coming out of the central government".

Federal Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq's office would not talk about
the government's plans following the announcement.

"While the government respects the court's decision, it is
disappointed with the outcome," said Health Canada spokesperson
Christelle Legault. "The government is reviewing the decision carefully."

Insite was created in 2003 after Health Canada, under the Liberal
government thanks to a minister's exemption from the Controlled Drugs
and Substances Act, and had received two exemptions from the
following Conservative government by 2008.

At the time, the government had said that the extensions were meant
to provide more research.

"Then, rather than using the (health-related) goals that InSite was
established to actually achieve," Evans said, "they switched the
focus of what they wanted ... [to] criminal. Are we actually getting
people off drugs and are we getting rid of crime?"

When asked about safe-injection sites, Legault said that their
approach "focuses on prevention and treatment leading to full recovery".

Legault was careful not to say whether or not it disagrees with
Insite's approach, noting that innovative approaches to treatment and
rehabilitation were a part of the government's agenda.

According to Evans, the scientific research into the matter backs up
the need for injection sites like Insite.

"The types of things that they've demonstrated is that Insite has a
significant role to play in a comprehensive way of addressing addiction."

The Canadian Medical Association Journal published an article in 2004
that claims Insite lowers public drug use and discarding of drug paraphernalia.

A 2006 paper from the New England Journal of Medicine states that an
average use of Insite of once a week or any contact with the on-site
addictions counsellor independently increased that person's chance to
get into rehab.

Health Canada compiled a report in 2008 for then-health-minister Tony
Clement that upheld some of these points, noting that Insite had
intervened in 336 overdose events, with no deaths.

"If they were to occur in an alley or somewhere isolated, that person
ultimately ends up dying," said Evans.

The report identified some limitations of the research, including the
issue of self-reporting and the difficulty of measuring injections in
Vancouver's downtown east side outside of Insite.

Evans wants to drive home the message that Insite saves lives.

"Shelly Tomic and Dean Wilson ... testified in the court document
that Insite had saved their lives," she said. "There's many people
that go every day (into the upstairs detox) who tell everyone who's
willing to hear ... that Insite has saved their lives, and they
wouldn't be in detox without Insite."