Pubdate: Sun, 27 Apr 2008
Source: Victoria Times-Colonist (CN BC)
Copyright: 2008 Times Colonist
Contact:  http://www.canada.com/victoriatimescolonist/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/481
Author: Cindy E . Harnett
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/hr.htm (Harm Reduction)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?142 (Supervised Injection Sites)

UVIC PROF LECTURES PM ON TORIES' DRUG POLICY

University of Victoria professor Susan Boyd's weekly letters to Prime 
Minister Stephen Harper on drug research haven't garnered a response 
from the federal government, but others around the world are reading.

"I've received many, many e-mails from people all over Canada," said 
Boyd, a drug policy researcher.

On Feb. 1, Boyd, along with the Beyond Prohibition Coalition of 
Vancouver, launched a website at www.educatingharper.com to inform 
the prime minister and concerned Canadian citizens about drug policy 
and harm reduction.

At the same time, she began a letter-writing campaign. Each week she 
heads to the post office with a letter and an accompanying article, 
pays for postage and sends it off to the Prime Minister's Office.

"I haven't received a letter back, not even a form letter. But I 
would hope ... just out of sheer curiosity, that he would look at his 
mail now and then to see what Canadians are thinking," Boyd said.

She has 52 articles planned out, a weekly reading list that can be 
found on her website. The first articles deal with the failures of 
drug prohibition and criminal justice initiatives.

The drug researcher, on sabbatical this year, says she was outraged 
by the federal government's crime bill C-26, which cracks down on 
drug traffickers -- and adds mandatory minimum sentences for growing 
marijuana -- as well as budget funding increases for police 
enforcement with only nominal amounts for harm reduction and treatment.

More than 78 per cent of federal drug funding goes toward criminal 
justice initiatives, while only three per cent was allocated to harm 
reduction, Boyd said. That allocation flies in the face of sound 
academic research, she said.

It convinced her that Harper needed to do his homework. In her 
letters she includes 25 peer-reviewed studies of Vancouver's 
supervised injection site Insite, where people can inject drugs with 
health professionals on hand to offer everything from treatment for 
overdoses to addiction counselling referrals.

The federal government rejected the Vancouver Health Authority's 
request for a 31/2-year extension for Insite and instead in October 
2007 gave the operation only a six-month lease on life.

"The [research is] well balanced methodologically, sound, with no 
exaggeration or claims that can't be supported," she said. Most 
researchers believe Insite has been a tremendous success, she said.

However, others point to Vancouver's seedy and troubled Downtown 
Eastside as overcome by crime and drugs and general chaos, all made 
worse by Insite. But Boyd argues that crime and public disorder have 
not increased because of the supervised injection site.

"When I walk through Downtown Eastside what I see is the result of 
extreme poverty and marginalization and cutbacks, gentrification," 
Boyd said. "We should be ashamed we don't provide affordable housing 
for people, adequate social supports, mental health supports."

Given a chance, Boyd would like to try to convince the prime minister 
to allow Victoria and other Canadian cities to run supervised 
injection sites. The Vancouver Island Health Authority is considering 
applying to Health Canada for an exemption from Canada's drug laws to 
pilot a supervised injection site as a research project.

Boyd says supervised injection sites are a unique way to reduce drug 
overdose deaths and hospital emergency visits, to prevent or reduce 
the spread of infectious diseases such as HIV and hepatitis C and to 
put drug users in contact with social services and health care 
providers, as well as detox and treatment programs and addiction counselling.

"I truly believe they serve a good purpose," Boyd said.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom