DRUG-ADDICTED LIFE WORTH SAVING

Re: Revoke this licence to enable, Dec. 8.

Margret Kopala's challenge to harm reduction by Colin Mangham that
programs such as Insite's needle exchanges have "few or no
reductions" in blood borne disease is as preposterous as saying
condoms don't prevent sexually transmitted infections.

Furthermore, Insite has had more than 800 documented overdoses in
their establishment, and due to medical supervision no deaths have
occurred since its inception.

The assertion that the American style war on drugs has been a success
is laughable. And the further misconception that enforcement will
render Vancouver's "pushers and users" into treatment or jail and
where "youth are hip to the dangers of drugs" is part of a delusional
psyche of the last failed 35 years of the war on drugs. Canada's
conservative government is quite happy to play the
treatment/enforcement card, as they seemingly only pay lip service
when it comes to actual funding of either treatment facilities or
prevention programs, while boosting an already proven ineffective
enforcement war.

Harm reduction (HR)only believes that life, even a drug-addicted
life, is worth saving. HR is not against abstinence. It only strives
to keep someone alive until they decide to quit using. When talking
about health-care expenditures it doesn't take a genius to figure out
that free needles, or crack pipes for that matter, are less expensive
then the treatment of individuals with Hepatitis C or HIV.

No one is proud of the terrible conditions in Vancouver's lower East
Side and yet funding should focus on affordable housing rather than
the further marginalization and incarceration of drug users.

Insite has proven to be effective in keeping people alive. Closure of
this program would only further marginalize the people that need our help.

Andrew Mclellan,

Ottawa