Pubdate: Mon, 24 Nov 2008 Source: Globe and Mail (Canada) Copyright: 2008 The Globe and Mail Company Contact: http://www.globeandmail.ca/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/168 Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?142 (Supervised Injection Sites) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/opinion.htm (Opinion) NEW METHOD, SAME RESULT In their criticism of Insite, Vancouver's supervised-injection facility for intravenous drug users, federal Conservatives assert the volumes of research citing the program's benefits are misleading; look closely, some say, and you will notice that the same few authors - read harm-reduction zealots - have been responsible for almost all the reports. It's a spurious criticism; these studies have appeared in peer-reviewed journals. But it is a yet more flimsy argument after the Canadian Medical Association Journal's publication of the latest Insite-related research. Dr. Ahmed Bayoumi, the lead author and a scientist at Toronto's Centre for Research on Inner City Health, is an unfamiliar name to those who have read previous reports on Insite. So is his co-author, Gregory Zaric of the University of Western Ontario's Richard Ivey School of Business. Their research was conducted along significantly different lines from previous examinations of Insite, exploring the facility's cost-effectiveness based on computer models. The only thing familiar in the study is its result: further evidence that Insite benefits both drug abusers and the broader community. According to Dr. Bayoumi's and Mr. Zaric's research, Insite stands to add 920 life-years and save nearly $14-million over 10 years based solely upon the reduction of needle-sharing. These results would be still better, if other factors, including referrals to treatment and the prevention of overdose deaths, were factored in. A projected 1,191 cases of HIV and 54 cases of Hepatitis C would be prevented over that time. And given the costs of treating the effects of HIV infection, the authors said, the facility is cost-effective under almost all potential circumstances. Although there is a new Health Minister, the federal government's response was familiar. "We need basics like prevention and treatment rather than experimental research," a spokesperson for Leona Aglukkaq told a reporter in an e-mail. But the last word really belongs to Dr. Bayoumi and Mr. Zaric: "The threat to close Insite appears to be based more on emotional reactions to the facility and drug addicts than to cost-effectiveness analyses." The Health ministry's predictable reaction goes to prove their point. - --- MAP posted-by: Larry Seguin