INSITE IS MORE THAN CLEAN DRUG EQUIPMENT

Seven years and three months have passed since drugs claimed my
sister's life. She was only 35 years old.

Her drug of choice was heroin and, like most users, it controlled her life.

I met her when I was four. At that time, I didn't know her as a user.
Those are the days I miss most.

Behind every drug addict is a soul. They are just like the rest of
us, but they have chosen different paths.

For my sister, that path had a fatal ending.

Eight years ago, the first supervised-injection site for drug users
in North America opened its doors in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside.

At Insite, there is always help available, from peer support and
mental health workers to counsellors and nurses. The 12 injection
booths allow addicts to inject illicit drugs under the supervision of
health-care staff.

Insite also supplies clean equipment. For my sister, this might have
saved her. It was the use of dirty needles that claimed her life in
February 2004 after an infection entered her blood system and poisoned her.

Since the facility opened, there have been more than 2,400 overdoses
at the site and no deaths. The number of overdose deaths in the
immediate vicinity has been reduced by 35 per cent.

Three years ago, the Conservative government refused to renew a
Health Canada exemption that would allow the facility to operate in
contravention of criminal drug laws. As a result, the program may be
forced to close its doors in the near future.

Statistics show that safe injection sites prevent overdose deaths and
help contain the spread of HIV/AIDS.

Numbers also indicate that more addicts have entered detox and
treatment programs since the facility opened in 2003.

It is a costly program, with a $3-million price tag each year, but it
is keeping the addicts out of our already full hospitals. It is also
slowing the spread of fatal infections, and offers the users support
and hope that one day they will walk down a different path. At the
centre, they are treated like humans, not just another drug addict.

The centre is a success, and it is repeatedly accomplishing its goal
of saving lives.

It would be a shame if the government ignored these facts and closed
the centre, which also houses a 30-bed detox and treatment facility
upstairs called Onsite.

"Insite saves lives, while Onsite changes lives," Dean Wilson told
The Province.

The 56-year-old speaks from experience. Fifteen months ago he ended
his 40 year addiction, which for years had involved injecting cocaine
30 to 40 times a day.

Wilson is one of the plaintiffs in the Supreme Court of Canada case
on the future of Insite. "I will stand with the users and fight this
until the day I die," he said.

Perhaps my sister would still be alive today if she had access to a
facility like Insite.

Who knows, she may have even sat beside Wilson at the court house and
joined the fight.