Pubdate: Fri, 22 Aug 2008 Source: Vancouver 24hours (CN BC) Copyright: 2008 Canoe Inc Contact: http://vancouver.24hrs.ca/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/3837 Author: Alex G. Tsakumis Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/opinion.htm (Opinion) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/people/Tony+Clement Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topic/Insite (Insite) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?142 (Supervised Injection Sites) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/hr.htm (Harm Reduction) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/rehab.htm (Treatment) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topic/Canadian+Medical+Association CLEMENT TELLS IT LIKE IT IS ON INSITE It was the roar heard across the country. Earlier this week federal Health Minister Tony Clement had the audacity to question the ethics of doctors, who have been blind proponents of "harm reduction" strategies for drug addicts. No common criticism in some local paper from the Dark Prince of Parry Sound. Oh no, Mr. Clement walked right into a packed room of MDs before the Canadian Medical Association, and let fly. He popped open his briefing book and let the collective harm reduction lobby have it - right between the eyes. What hubris! Outrage from many doctors ranged from ear-steaming vitriol to the kind of dismissive pretense that would leave Marie Antoinette labouring in wonder. According to the doctors present, you and I should not be all too approving of Tony the Tyrant. Well, I agree. You shouldn't be simply enthused. Instead, you should stand on your chairs and cheer at the top of your lungs. You should embrace your neighbour in joy, knowing that the Canadian Minister of Health, Tony Clement, fully understands the manure we've been fed for several years now by the harm reduction lobby. You should pump your fists in the air in celebration that there is at least one politician in this country who grasps the scourge that is addiction. As Canadians who care about what kind of future we will leave to our children, you should take from Minister Clement's resounding boldness and inspiring courage, that the Conservative government of this country appreciates the problems related to addiction, and, unlike 10 years of Liberal government dithering and navel-gazing, the Tories, at least, are prepared to do something about it. Never mind the deceit being shovelled in your direction: The Tories want to jail addicts; they want to let the American Drug Enforcement Agency into Canada (they've been here by the way, since the Chretien years); they are heartless ... cough, spit, choke and spit again. Horse feathers. Harm reduction strategies in this country have been manipulated to create a whole new industry for the proponent doctors to have and to hold, forever and a day, while addicts run proverbial treatment treadmills like the guinea pigs they've become. Never mind what you might read in The Vancouver Sun (they've had it wrong from the beginning). We've never had Four Pillars in this city, ever. Only one Pillar, harm reduction, at a location we've come to know as Insite - a "safe" haven where addicts can shoot up. But how safe? Housed in the same building, one floor above is a "pre-tox" facility called Onsite, where addicts are presumably coming down off the hell in their veins. So, 15 feet from where addicts are trying to supposedly rid themselves of their demons, others are getting their fill. Make sense to you? Of course not. In the drug treatment business, it's called a 'trigger' and considered verboten. But you don't hear this from Mark Townsend, whose Portland Hotel Society landlords this charade. All you hear is the kind of expedient lather that springs political and stays that way. At the beginning of the year, when the top drug addictionologists in this province wrote an article in the B.C. Medical Journal condemning Sam Sullivan's CAST - another harm reduction fantasy - the mainstream press ignored them. The exploitation of Mr. Clement's salient comments notwithstanding, he is an advocate for treatment, prevention and education - the three missing Pillars. So where's the problem, you say? It's with the proponents of harm reduction hocus pocus. The sucking sound becoming fainter and fainter, thankfully ... no more teat to milk tax dollars from. Real treatment. Real compassion, too. Tony Clement is a damned hero.