INSITE OFFERS THE MOST LIKELY PATH TO COMPLETE MAKEOVER

As a comment on Jon Ferry's column on Insite, Vancouver's safe
injection facility, I think he sums up well the opposing arguments.

But in response to his conclusion - "we're not really helping
drugtakers by simply feeding their addiction. They need a complete
physical and spiritual makeover . . . the sad reality is, though, that
finding a quick fix will always be more politically palatable than
seeking a real cure" - I fear that the "quick fix" would be to close
Insite.

The evaluations published by the research team clearly show that
Insite attendance leads to on-site detox and entry into longer-term
addictions treatment.

Insite attendees are 30-per-cent more likely to enter the process that
might lead to "physical and spiritual makeover" than are injection
drug users who do not enter this treatment portal, plus they are more
likely to remain alive, and therefore more able to make a treatment
choice, than those who inject in alleys and hotel rooms.

For these individuals, Insite is an important component of the path to
recovery, and given that critical inquiry has failed to show adverse
impacts - like encouraging more drug use, binge use or delay in
accessing detox, quite the opposite in fact - characterizing Insite as
only a "quick fix" does seem to me to be inherently contradictory. It
is not as if one can point to a demonstrably more effective
intervention.

Dr. Perry Kendall, Provincial Health Officer of B.C.