REAL WOMEN TO INTERVENE IN VANCOUVER DRUG INJECTION SITE CASE

OTTAWA (CCN)--REAL Women of Canada has been granted leave to intervene
before the Supreme Court of Canada in the Vancouver drug injection
site case to be argued May 11.

The pro-family, pro-life women's organization is the only group among
nine interveners that will argue on behalf of the federal government's
position that Ottawa has the responsibility to control illegal drugs
and that those laws should have a moral basis.

REAL Women's national vice president Gwen Landolt said the offer of
so-called "safe" injection sites for addicts who desperately need
treatment to get them off drugs "are assisting in the suicide of drug
addicts." She warned the push for drug injection sites like "Insite"
in Vancouver is part of an overall strategy to decriminalize drug use.
Removing criminal penalties sends a message to society that addictive
drug use is socially acceptable, she said.

British Columbia has argued the drug injection site provides health
care to addicts and is thus a health issue under provincial
jurisdiction.

Landolt disagrees the site provides health care. The present federal
drug laws and the use of "drug courts" to force addicts arrested on
possession charges to choose between treatment or a criminal charge
are the only ways to help addicts, Landolt said. "Treatment is the
only way addicts can get out of the horror of being an addict."

The province has the support of groups such as the Canadian Medical
Association (CMA), which is also among the nine groups granted
intervener status.

"The CMA strongly supports the inclusion of harm reduction tools in a
comprehensive national drug strategy," said CMA president Dr. Jeff
Turnbull last October when announcing the CMA was seeking to intervene
in the case. "The management of a substance-addicted person through a
harm reduction strategy such as Insite is a medical decision involving
clinical autonomy and not an issue subject to government intrusion."

Supporters of Insite argue the site protects addicts from dying from
drug overdoses or contracting HIV/AIDs or hepatitis through the
sharing of contaminated syringes.

But for Landolt, so-called "safe" injection site provides no way out
for the addict, whose condition gets "worse and worse until they die."

Drug use is not, as harm reduction advocates argue, a "victimless
crime," she said. Drug addiction not only harms addicts, it harms
their families and communities. The approach of harm reduction deepens
drug use and offers no hope to addicts. Vancouver's Downtown East side
neighborhood, where the Insite supervised drug injection facility is
located is littered with needles, and sees no reduction in crime,
prostitution or drug trafficking, she said.

The addicts still need to bring their illegally obtained product to
the site to inject under supervision. It costs $3 million in
taxpayer's dollars to run the site, plus the additional cost of 65
Vancouver police officers to patrol the five blocks around the site,
she said. That money should be directed to treatment for addicts, she
said.

Another problem with the site is that a police officer, who sees an
addict going into the site, cannot lay a charge of possession, Landolt
said. That undermines the principle of equality before the law.
Police officers are required to escort addicts into the site. This
gives the impression that the addict as the right to do drugs and
sends a terrible message to adolescents that drug-taking is socially
acceptable, she said.

The site has also not stopped the rising death toll from drug use, she
added, noting there were 40 drug deaths in 2009 in Vancouver and the
level goes up every year.

Justice Minister Rob Nicholson has said the case raises questions
about the division of powers between the federal and the provincial
governments and inter-jurisdictional immunity.