INSITE DECISION IS HYPOCRITICAL

To the editor:

According to the Supreme Court ruling, drug addicts now have
constitutional rights to free medical treatment via drug treatment
centres like Insite. Vancouver's Insite is funded by both the B.C.
Ministry of Health ($1.2 million per year) and Health Canada ($0.5
million per year).

The clinic provides free needles and free medical care to those
addicted to drugs. The argument used by all nine Supreme Court judges
was that closing the clinic would violate drug users' constitutional
rights and "potential denial of health services and the correlative
increase risk of death and disease".

Using the same logic, shouldn't people who have chronic illnesses,
such as people with Type 1 diabetes, be given the same constitutional
right to free life-sustaining medical supplies (i.e. insulin pumps
and continuous glucose monitoring systems which have been proven the
best possible treatment for people with Type 1 diabetes)?

Why are drug addicts getting free treatment for their "illness" while
those with chronic diseases are not?

Tracy Wu

Surrey