A SAFE PLACE TO SHOOT UP

Supervised Injection Sites in Canada

The controversy behind supervised injection sites is nothing new. As
previously stated in The Daily's news article, "Supreme Court rules in
favour of supervised injection site" published on October 24, the
Supreme Court ruled on September 30 in favour of allowing Insite,
Vancouver's supervised injection site, to continue running. According
to Quebec Health Minister Yves Bolduc, the city of Montreal plans to
follow suit in the coming year.

Supervised injection sites are a place where those addicted to drugs
go to inject them under the supervision of health care specialists.
They get their drugs from their usual source and take them into a
building full of nurses, counselors and other health authorities to
inject. The purpose of this arrangement is to keep them off the
streets, provide clean needles, and allow authorities to intervene in
the case of emergency.

InSite, the first, and only, legal injection supervision site in North
America, is located in Vancouver. It first opened in 2003 and has
since helped over 12,000 drug users safely inject. InSite operates
under a harm-reduction model - they strive to decrease the adverse
health, social, and economic consequences of drug use without
abstinence. They offer a network of nurses, counselors, mental health
professionals, and peer support workers, along with clean injection
equipment such as syringes, cookers, and tourniquets to prevent infection.

According to InSite for Community Safety, a website linked to InSite,
there have been only thirty new cases of HIV/AIDS in downtown east
side of Vancouver the year after InSite's opening. This is massive
progress compared to 1996's 2100 new cases. These sites also save
large amounts in health costs yearly - lifetime costs of an HIV
infection are about $500,000, a significant amount compared to
InSite's relatively meager 2010-11 budget of $2,969,440.

There are 12 injection booths at InSite, where drug users inject under
the supervision of nurses and healthcare staff who intervene
immediately in the case of any complication. InSite has successfully
intervened in 221 overdoses and has referred over 5,000 drug users to
social and health services, such as detox and addiction treatment.

Supervised injections sites have many names, including: drug
consumption facilities, medically supervised injection sites, safer
injection facilities, or - most controversially - safe injection
sites. Most officials are hesitant to call them safe, on the premise
that drugs are inherently unsafe.

Not only are these sites safer for the drug users themselves, but they
also make the community surrounding them safer. Contrary to what
politicians opposed to supervised injection sites may argue, Health
Canada has shown that these sites do not attract drug-related crime.
In addition, they reduce drug-related litter in the streets, overall
needle-sharing, and do not negatively impact those seeking addiction
treatment. Furthermore, they promote education about drug abuse so
that the public can get the facts. Health Canada also reports that
studies conducted by "a private security firm hired by the Chinatown
Business Association show that between 2003 and 2006 there was a
decrease in sex trade activity (by 19 per cent), thefts (by 32 per
cent), shop lifting (by 20 per cent), sexual assault (by 66 per cent)
and squeegee activity (by 95 per cent) on the Chinatown area."

The main argument against InSite and similar institutions is that drug
use is a crime, and should not be condoned in any way. For example,
the Royal Canadian Mounted Police released a report in 2006 claiming
that there is an increase in the number of drug users proportional to
the decreased risks associated with InSite. Tony Clement of the
Conservative Party called InSite an "abomination" and, in 2008,
refused to renew InSite's exemption from the federal Controlled Drugs
and Substances Act. In general, the Conservatives see injection sites
as a step towards drug legalization, undermining laws and policies, as
implied by Stephen Harper's comment that "we as a government will not
use taxpayers' money to fund drug use."

"Unlike what some people believe, the sites do not increase crime in
the community. They save lives. Drug abuse is a disease," said
Quebec's Health and Social Services Minister Yves Bolduc to the Globe
and Mail.

"The evidence is overwhelming," Mark Townsend, executive director of
the PHS Community Services Society said to the press after the court
ruling in Ottawa. "You have forty peer-reviewed studies funded by the
federal government themselves that says it saves lives, it saves
money, it's a useful part of a comprehensive strategy."

And, as the Supreme Court concluded, "there can only be one response:
to grant the exemption" and keep safe injections sites alive.