FOCUS DRUG SITE DEBATE ON SCIENCE, OTTAWA URGED

Toronto -- A group of 130 prominent doctors, scientists and
public-health professionals took aim at the federal government
yesterday for putting political ideology ahead of scientific evidence
when considering the future of Vancouver's safe injection site.

The group, which included British Columbia's chief medical officer of
health, the head of the British Columbia Centre for Disease Control
and Montreal's director of public health, endorsed a commentary
published in the journal Open Medicine that said the injection site
was being judged by a different standard than other health measures.

"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," states the
article, written by Dr. Stephen Hwang, a Toronto researcher on inner
city health.