BACK DOWN ON INSITE CLOSURE

An Ottawa Citizen editorial:

The Supreme Court of Canada will consider on May 12 whether the
federal government has the jurisdictional authority to shut down
Insite, the supervised drug-injection facility in Vancouver.

No matter which way that case goes, the Conservative government should
drop its campaign against the facility. There is new, dramatic
evidence that if Insite closes, people will die. No government can, in
good conscience, ignore such evidence.

It comes in the reputable medical journal The Lancet, which published
a study last month regarding fatal overdoses in Vancouver between 2001
and 2005. In the city as a whole, such deaths decreased by nine per
cent. Within 500 metres of Insite, such deaths decreased an impressive
35 per cent. .

We already knew that Insite reduces behaviours that transmit HIV, and
helps the general public by preventing costs to other public services
and reducing disorder. A national crime or health policy that saw any
of this as a bad thing would be laughable, if it were not so
dangerous. .

Opponents of Insite say they want to focus on prevention and
rehabilitation, and they worry that allowing addicts a safe place to
shoot up sends a mixed message, enabling the very behaviour the
government wants to discourage.

That logic is flawed. The two approaches are not mutually exclusive.
Insite actually increases the use of detox and addiction services,
partly by establishing a link between addicts and the public-health
system.