DOA PROVIDES MUSICAL ACCOMPANIMENT FOR SAFE INJECTION SITE

Punk Rockers Part Of Ongoing Campaign To Drum Up Public Support To
Keep Insite Open Past December

What's legendary punk rock band DOA got to do with the city's
supervised injection site?

The local three-chord rockers recently played an afternoon concert in
the Downtown Eastside to kick off a second round of campaigning to
keep Insite open.

The band, along with TV Heart Attack, played in front of a large
banner draped on a building on Carrall Street that read, "Hundreds
will die if supervised injection site closes."

The facility at 139 East Hastings has an operating agreement with the
federal government that expires Dec. 31. The Conservative government
has not said whether it will keep the doors open.

"We're continuing to try and get [the government] to do the right
thing," said Mark Townsend, executive director of the PHS Community
Services Society.

The PHS operates Insite in conjunction with Vancouver Coastal Health.
The non-profit organization and community volunteers launched a
letter-writing campaign to Prime Minister Stephen Harper in June 2006.

To date, Insite for Community Safety has collected approximately 8,000
letters, including 3,000 this summer and several hundred at the Aug. 4
DOA concert.

Mayor Sam Sullivan, former police chief Jamie Graham and U.S. activist
Noam Chomsky are among the letter writers, as are many longtime drug
addicts.

The campaign got a boost last week when more than 130 Canadian
doctors, scientists and public health professionals endorsed an
article published in the Open Medicine journal.

Dr. Stephen Hwang, a research scientist at the Centre for Research on
Inner City Health in Toronto, outlined his concerns about the federal
government's failure to recognize the research on Insite.

Hwang pointed out that a series of peer-reviewed research articles on
Insite have shown the facility has reduced needle sharing, decreased
public drug use, decreased publicly discarded syringes and provided
more rapid entry into detox for users of Insite.

Hwang also noted the opening of the facility in September 2003 hasn't
been associated with any increase in levels of crime, public disorder
or injection drug use.

"The health of the nation is placed in peril if our leaders ignore
crucial research findings simply because they run contrary to a rigid
policy agenda driven by ideology or fixed beliefs," he added.

Health Minister Tony Clement visited Insite in January of this year
and was in the city earlier this month to address the Canadian Medical
Association.

Clement skirted questions about Insite but has said more research has
to be conducted for the government to make "an informed decision"
about the facility's future.

He made those comments in Sept. 2006 when he agreed to keep Insite
open for another 16 months. Proponents of Insite wanted it open for at
least another three-and-a-half years.

"Do safe injection sites contribute to lowering drug use and fighting
addiction? Right now the only thing the research to date has proven
conclusively is drug addicts need more help to get off drugs," Clement
said.

His statement came on the heels of the Canadian Police Association and
the RCMP announcing that Insite was contributing to an increase in
crime.

On Aug. 17, the PHS Community Services Society and heroin addicts Dean
Wilson and Shelly Tomic filed a statement of claim in B.C. Supreme
Court against the Attorney General of Canada.

In the claim, Wilson and Tomic stated that if Insite closes they will
face increased risks of overdose, infection, decline in their mental
and psychological well-being and other health-related complications
from drug use.