STUDY BACKS SAFE-INJECTION SITE'S WORK

Use of Centre Increases Rate of Addicts Entering Detox 30%,
London-Based Medical Journal Finds

VANCOUVER -- On the eve of the expected unveiling next week of the
federal Conservatives' long-waited anti-drug strategy, a significant
new study has endorsed the benefits of Vancouver's controversial
safe-injection site for heroin addicts, a pilot project many fear
Ottawa will end.

The study, published today in the London-based medical journal
Addiction, found that use of the city's supervised injection facility
known as Insite increased the rate of addicts entering detox by 30 per cent.

As well, the study determined users of North America's only
safe-injection site were more likely to reduce their heroin intake
and pursue formal treatment programs such as methadone once they left detox.

The dramatic findings appear to echo precisely what the ultimate
arbiter of the facility's fate, federal Health Minister Tony Clement,
has said Insite needs to demonstrate to prove its worth: lower drug
use and success in fighting addiction.

They also fly in the face of an earlier RCMP report critical of the
site, asserting there is "considerable evidence" that allowing
addicts to shoot up safely increases the use of illegal drugs.

Despite the study, however, Insite backers continue to worrythat the
distaste of many Conservatives for harm-reduction programs, which
treat drug addiction as a health problem rather than a criminal
matter, will result in the centre's demise by the end of the year.

They point to numerous previous scientific studies in medical
publications such as the New England Journal of Medicine and The
Lancet, all of which found a positive impact on drug users and the
surrounding neighbourhood since Insite opened more than three years ago.

Yet Mr. Clement has called for more research before making a decision
on the facility's future.

"The government has seemed intent on ignoring scientific evidence to
pursue an ideological agenda at the expense of lives in the Downtown
Eastside," said Dr. Julio Montaner, one of the study's authors and
director of the B.C. Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS.

"It is time for the federal government to accept the evidence and
move the debate to a higher level."

Underscoring widespread skepticism among many researchers over the
government's alleged anti-harm-reduction agenda is a decision by five
leading scientists to boycott bidding for Health Canada contracts to
conduct further research into Insite's operation.

In an open letter to senior Health Canada policy analyst Tracey
Donaldson, the group said the five-month time frame is too short,
compensation is insufficient and successful bidders must agree to
keep mum over their research for six months.

"In no way is that acceptable to any academic," one of the
scientists, Benedikt Fischer of the University of Victoria, said
yesterday. "And how can anyone produce anything meaningful in such a
short time that goes beyond what has already been done by other
researchers? There are already 40 to The Addiction study based its
findings on interviews and database searches involving more than
1,000 Insite users. Researchers compared their activity in the year
before visiting Insite and the year following their first use of the facility.

A complicated mathematical adjustment taking other factors into
consideration produced a final conclusion that the rate of addicts
entering detoxification rose 30 per cent among those using the
injection facility.