MP BLASTS B.C. SAFE INJECTION SITE POLICY

B.C. has been silent on Vancouver's plan to open a safe-injection site in
the drug-plagued Downtown Eastside for too long and needs to say where they
stand on the issue now, said Canadian Alliance MP John Duncan.

The comments come not a week after a 200-page proposal to install Canada's
first safe injection sites at two Vancouver locations was submitted to
Health Canada by the Vancouver Coastal Health Authority last week.

That proposal was endorsed by Vancouver's city council and police
department, along with the B.C. Centre for Disease Control and the B.C.
Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS.

Sitting next to B.C. Premier Gordon Campbell in Simon Fraser University's
Morris J. Wosk Centre for Dialogue in downtown Vancouver, the MP for
Vancouver Island North criticised the B.C. government last Monday for not
adopting a firmer position on detox, rehabilitation, intervention,
education, and enforcement in B.C.'s drug war.

"The silence of the province on these issues signals acceptance [of drug
addiction]," said Duncan to the packed auditorium of MPs and provincial MLAs.

There are about 125,000 intravenous drug users in Canada, according to the
B.C. Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS. More than 2,000 people have died of
drug overdoses in Canada since 1992.

The province's silence on the safe-injection site issue has a lot to do
with whether Vancouver will remain as committed to it as the November 16
civic election suggested, said Duncan at a media scrum after the speech.

"Clearly, the pro harm reduction crowd did very well in the Vancouver
elections, so the province doesn't want to get involved until such time as
the sort of euphoria of the municipal elections is more distant," said
Duncan. "That's what I think is happening."

Solicitor General Rich Coleman said the province doesn't have "a pat
response" for any part of the safe injection site issue at this time.

But to Campbell, Victoria's position has been clear from the start.

"We have a position. The position is they have to be legal, there has to be
a Canada-wide position, there has to be a way that we can move forward
that's constructive, that's building on sound provincial policy," said
Campbell. "We've been clear. You need a national framework for this."

Norman Ruff, a University of Victoria political scientist, said it is not
surprising that the B.C. government has not spoken plainly about
safe-injection sites, part of the prevention, treatment, harm reduction and
law enforcement approach to drug addiction imported from Switzerland by
former Vancouver mayor Phillip Owen in 2001, since it is an issue that
might cause conflict within a party supported by a broad base of social
conservatism.

"[The B.C. Liberals] are not closing off the possibility, but they're not
wildly enthusiastic about it," he said. "They will likely leave the issue
for local communities to deal with."

Meanwhile, Duncan's claims that safe injection sites require police to turn
"a blind eye" to drug trafficking, and will increase gang activity and the
drug culture are unfounded, said Vancouver Mayor Larry Campbell.

"It's just a myth that's being used by those who basically don't want to
help people get better," said Mayor Campbell. "On [the safe injection site]
issue at least there's a lot of dinosaurs in the Alliance party."

Duncan's claim that users and dealers will flock to safe injection sites is
also unfounded since the Downtown Eastside is already saturated with them,
said William Elliot at the corner of Hastings and Cordova, next to a woman
shooting heroin into her arm.

"I don't think you could get more dealers down here," said Elliot.

Canadian University Press