HAPPY HEROIN USERS

OTTAWA - Canada's top court has given Vancouver's supervised
drug-injection site a stay of execution.

In a unanimous decision released Friday, the Supreme Court ruled the
Conservative government must grant Insite immediate immunity from
federal drug laws - and that comes with no expiry date.

To force the site to close "would have been to prevent injection drug
users from accessing the health services offered by Insite,
threatening the health and indeed the lives of potential clients,"
Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin wrote in the ruling.

Shuttering the facility would therefore contravene the Section 7
charter rights - of life, liberty and security - of addicts.

The decision says the health benefits for intravenous drug users
offered by Insite outweigh the benefits of an absolute prohibition on
street drug possession at Insite.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper said he is "disappointed" with the
ruling, but the government will comply with the decision.

Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq said the government believes policy
should focus on keeping people from becoming drug addicts in the first
place and has boosted funding to "existing treatment efforts."

The ruling opens the door to similar facilities across Canada, and
Quebec has expressed interest in the model.

The legal battle began in 2007, when Insite asked the B.C. Supreme
Court for a permanent exemption from federal drug laws to keep clients
and staff from being prosecuted for possession and
trafficking.

The court ruled in Insite's favour, but the Conservative government
appealed the decision.

The eight-year-old facility gives users < who bring their own drugs to
the site - clean equipment as well as a place to shoot up under the
supervision of nurses.

Canadian Medical Association president John Haggie argues it saves
lives, reduces the spread of disease and helps funnel drug addicts
into treatment.

"We'd like to see it as part of a comprehensive national strategy to
deal with drug addiction," he said.

Dean Wilson, a plaintiff in the case and a former addict, said the
ruling legitimized his long fight to keep Insite open.

"But while the battle of Insite is over, the battle of addiction and
the battle of sick people in our inner cities is not over in a long
shot," he said.

Critics, however, say the facility is nothing but a provincially
funded shooting gallery and a haven for illegal drug use.

"It's a matter of the court deciding arrogantly, and very arbitrarily
that they know better than the federal government," said Gwendolyn
Landolt, president of the Drug Prevention Network of Canada.

"It's a matter of ideology."

Insite is the only facility of its kind in North America.