DECISION ON INSITE WILL AFFECT ALL OF CANADA

The Editor,

The fate of Insite, the supervised injection site in Vancouver, will
be decided at the Supreme Court of Canada.

During the legal hearing, we know that the federal government has
granted the facility an exemption from law enforcement for the purpose
of a scientific study.

As the Harper government refused to renew the exemption in 2008, the
facility was subject to closure.

However, the decision by a 2010 B.C. appeal court ruling allows the
facility to remain open and operational.

Advocates for Insite try to frame drug addiction as a medical
disease.

Such disease needs the medical service like Insite to provide harm
reduction to addicts.

The lawsuit of Insite is drawing attention across the country as
advocates from other cities want to use Insite as a textbook example
to open the same ones in their communities.

In other words, if the Supreme Court of Canada grants Insite the
operation permit, we will see more injection sites across the country.

This will put a huge challenge upon the Harper government to legislate
new laws to restrict drug crimes.

When there are more facilities with the exemption from law
enforcement, the law itself and any action being backed by the law to
fight drugs become pointless.

If access to drug use becomes too safe, too easy and too convenient,
the impression of drug addiction will be transformed from individual
destructive behaviour to personal health issues.

This will probably impose the false impression of drug use upon many
young people. They can see drug use as a personal pleasure rather than
a destructive choice that will wreck their marriages, careers and even
their lives.

If the number of young addicts is growing, the advocates will open
more injection sites as the solution.

The decision of Insite today will affect not only Vancouver people,
but also the fate of the drug policy in the whole country.

Tony Poon

Richmond