Pubdate: Wed, 18 Oct 2006
Source: Kamloops Daily News (CN BC)
Copyright: 2006 Kamloops Daily News
Contact:  http://www.kamloopsnews.ca/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/679

SENATOR: 'ADDICTION AN ILLNESS, NOT A CRIME'

Supervised injection sites are common sense, the right approach on 
grounds of compassion, saving lives and saving money, Senator Larry 
Campbell told a TRU audience Tuesday.

The Liberal appointee was mayor of Vancouver when the city introduced 
the first supervised injection site in North America.

He was invited to speak by the TRU human rights committee on the 
broader topic of the four pillars approach to drug addiction and treatment.

"Addiction is an illness, not a crime," he said, provoking scattered 
applause. "I smoke cigarettes, for God's sake. I'm a junkie."

A former RCMP drug squad officer, he outlined the four pillars of 
education, treatment, harm reduction and enforcement.

"Four pillars is a way of looking at addiction that's different," he 
said, first pointing to the importance of factually based education 
rather than scaremongering.

People need to be able to make informed decisions and treatment must 
respond to the needs of addicts.

"We don't have treatment-on-demand for addicts," he continued. "They 
say, 'You've got to be clean or we won't take you into the program.' 
" Yet someone who is clean doesn't need treatment.

Harm reduction means, 'I'm going to keep you alive because you don't 
know what you're taking."

Supervised injection sites assure harm reduction based on clear 
statistical results, he argued. A rough estimate suggests there are 
more than 650,000 narcotic injections in Vancouver annually.

"We've had about 400 overdoses in there," he said of the Vancouver 
site. "Guess what? No deaths.

"It's common sense, it's real common sense. Do you know what common 
sense is? It's doing right. If it feels right, nine times out of 10 
you're going to be on the right track."

Safe injection sites in tandem with the provision of 250 units of 
social housing at the site of the former Woodward's building were his 
proudest achievements as mayor, Campbell said.

In September, Health Canada put off making a final decision on 
whether to extend Vancouver's supervised injection site, called 
Insite, for another 31/2 years. Health Minister Tony Clement said at 
the time additional studies must be conducted into the impact of 
supervised injection sites. Insite will remain open until Dec. 31, 
2007 while further studies are done.

Well known for his outspoken style, Campbell gave a characteristic 
delivery. Evidently Ottawa has not changed him.

"I like people here because Kamloops is a no-bullshit town," said 
Campbell, who visited many times when serving as B.C.'s top coroner. 
"The people are always straight up with you."

After accepting the senate appointment from former prime minister 
Paul Martin, he was told he would represent Kamloops as well as 
Vancouver in the upper house.

"If they'd given me an option, I don't think there's another city I'd 
rather be twinned with."
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MAP posted-by: Elaine