Pubdate: Fri, 21 Jul 2006
Source: Metro (CN BC)
Copyright: Metro 2006
Contact:  http://www.metronews.ca/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/3775
Author: Jared Ferrie, Metro Vancouver
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/heroin.htm (Heroin)

TORIES TO LET INSITE CLOSE

'We'll let the project finish and then we'll make a decision:' MP

Vancouver's safe injection site will be forced to close its doors 
Sept. 12 before the Tories decide whether to restart the controversial program.

"We'll let the project finish and then we'll make a decision," 
Conservative MP Steven Fletcher, who is parliamentary secretary to 
Health Minister Tony Clement, told Metro Vancouver Wednesday.

City Drug Policy Co-ordinator Don MacPherson told News 1130 the move 
would be a "significant step backwards. There would be a great many 
citizens of Vancouver who would be quite upset about the federal 
government meddling in local affairs."

Insite has operated for three years through an exemption of the 
Controlled Drugs and Substances Act. Prime Minister Stephen Harper 
would have to approve another exemption. Until Wednesday, the 
Conservatives and Health Canada officials had been noncommittal, 
saying only that they were reviewing the research.

Gillian Maxwell, a spokesperson for Insite For Community Safety, was 
shaken by Fletcher's remarks. "If the doors close many people will 
die," she said. "It's playing with people's lives."

Alan, who didn't want to give his last name, knows that first-hand. 
He's a heroin addict who overdosed recently. It took 15 minutes for 
Insite staff to revive him. "If I had been anywhere else, I'm sure I 
wouldn't be alive today," he said.

Yesterday, supporters gathered at Vanier Park to erect 336 wooden 
crosses the number of overdoses at Insite during an 18-month period 
monitored for a study published Wednesday in the International 
Journal Of Drug Policy.

Previous research has found that about 4 per cent of overdoses result 
in death. None of the total 450 overdoses at Insite proved fatal.

Alan warned against shutting the site down. "It's going to go back to 
the days of people dying in the back alleys," he said.
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MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman