Pubdate: Wed, 05 Jul 2006 Source: Vancouver Courier (CN BC) Copyright: 2006 Vancouver Courier Contact: http://www.vancourier.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/474 Author: Mike Howell, Staff writer Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?142 (Safe Injecting Rooms) INJECTION SITE OPERATOR LOBBYING OTTAWA The non-profit organization that operates the city's supervised injection site has launched a letter writing campaign to encourage Prime Minister Stephen Harper to keep the facility open. The PHS Community Services Society, which operates Insite at 139 East Hastings in conjunction with the Vancouver Coastal Health Authority, began the campaign in the Downtown Eastside last week. Yesterday, the PHS and volunteers set up a table outside the Carnegie Centre at Main and Hastings to collect letters from drug users and non-drug users. Over the weekend, volunteers collected letters in Grandview Park on Commercial Drive. The campaign's first table was set up last week inside Pigeon Park Savings, a PHS-run bank across the street from Insite. As of yesterday morning, Nathan Allen, the bank's manager and an organizer of the campaign, said volunteers collected a couple hundred letters. "It's not like pulling teeth-it's really easy," said Allen, noting some of the letters are one paragraph long and others two pages. "We want the government to know that this is affecting real people and that's the goal is to have real personal letters and personal stories from folks." He shared one brief letter with the Courier. "I believe that the Vancouver safe injection site should remain open," the author wrote. "Myself, I am one week shy of 10 months being sober, and I have a lot of gratitude for Insite. And as I've been injecting in alleyways and bathrooms, etc., I'm almost 100 per cent sure that I would not be here today to write this letter if not for the safe injection site." The majority of writers are signing their names to their letters. Though more than half are current or former drug users, Allen pointed out "regular Vancouverites" have written letters of support. So far, Allen said volunteers haven't had any detractors sign letters. The campaign is also considering visiting business owners in the Downtown Eastside to lobby their support for the injection site. The fact that the PHS operates Insite is not a motivating factor in ensuring the site remains open, Allen said. It costs about $2 million a year to operate the facility, which is open seven days a week from 10 a.m. to 4 a.m. "That's not my motivation in terms of who gets the contract or whatever for the safe injection site," he said. "What we're asking for is for this renewal [of Insite]. Myself and other activists have been working on this issue for a while and really care about it." Insite, which opened in September 2003, is a scientific research project and the only legal injection site in North America. The facility operates under an exemption from Canada's drug laws. The exemption expires in September. Police Chief Jamie Graham, Mayor Sam Sullivan and the province's medical health officer, Dr. Perry Kendall, all support the facility. Research has shown the site has likely reduced overdose drug deaths, disease transmission and helped users get treatment and counselling for their addictions. Vancouver-Burrard Liberal MLA Lorne Mayencourt has called the research "spotty at best." Mayencourt told the Courier last week that he has received more research papers from the B.C. Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS and will be reading it before making further comment on the site. Conservative Health Minister Tony Clement must sign off on the exemption if the government wants the site to continue for another term or operate indefinitely. During the winter election campaign, Harper said he wouldn't allow taxpayers' money to be spent on drug use. "We'll be doing [the campaign] until there's a political commitment out of Ottawa that it's going ahead or not," Allen added. "We just know it would be a huge negative impact on the neighbourhood if it closed down, and we just know so many people helped out by it that we want to keep it going." - --- MAP posted-by: Derek