DRUG-INJECTION CLINIC FACES LONG WAIT FOR DECISION FROM SUPREME COURT

Advocates anxiously awaiting a court ruling that will decide the
future of Vancouver's supervised drug-injection site could be on
tenterhooks for up to a year, legal experts say.

"The court will probably not release its decision until late this
year, and perhaps not until early 2012," a lawyer for the Canadian
Nurses Association, which is an intervener in the case, said on Tuesday.

Rahool Agarwal said given the case's complexity, the nine Supreme
Court judges considering it will likely take their time.

There is no route to appeal their decision, Agarwal said.

Canada's top court is examinng two constitutional issues after
arguments from both sides were heard May 12 in Ottawa.

One is whether federal drug laws or provincial health-care interests
should have power over Insite.

The second is whether it would violate the Charter rights of drug
users to stop providing the service.

Insite has legally allowed addicts a clean and safe space to inject
street drugs since 2003 under an exemption from the possession and
trafficking laws.