INJECTION-SITE MODEL NEEDED HERE

I agree that the Harper government should not waste more time or
money on appealing the recent B.C. Court of Appeal decision on
Insite, Vancouver's supervised injection site ("Getting smart on drug
policies," Jan 21).

One minor point of clarification; the B.C. Court of Appeal ruled 2-1
that health facilities like Insite fall under provincial, not
federal, jurisdiction, and ruled in favour of Insite on those grounds.

The Court of Appeal agreed with Judge Pitfield's lower court ruling,
3-0, that sections of the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act are
unconstitutional with respect to Insite, but they set that aside ... for now.

I hope this ruling gives the city, and the Vancouver Island Health
Authority, enough courage to establish a supervised injection site
and re-establish a fixed needle exchange program in Victoria.

Matthew M. Elrod

Victoria