Pubdate: Thu, 23 Oct 2008
Source: Vue Weekly (CN AB)
Section: Front
Copyright: 2008, Vue Weekly.
Contact:  http://www.vueweekly.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2918
Author: Connie Howard
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?142 (Supervised Injection Sites)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topic/Insite (InSite)

WELL, WELL, WELL: NO INSITE? NO INSIGHT

On my mind this week, in the wake of Stephen Harper's re-election, 
are the realities facing some of those most marginalized among 
us--the drug addicted, to be specific.

We now have a model of an effective approach to reducing harm among 
addicts--Vancouver's safe injection program, InSite. But the Harper 
government has repeatedly tried to shut it down, and Minister of 
Health Tony Clement has called it an abomination. They believe harm 
reduction strategies to be a misallocation of tax dollars.

InSite opened in 2003 in the heart of Vancouver's Downtown Eastside 
as a pilot project aiming to reduce harm among those who have tried 
unsuccessfully in the past to beat their drug addiction, those 
injecting publicly in the streets of the city and the homeless.

Operating under a constitutional exception to the Controlled Drugs 
and Substances Act, it's a place where addicts can connect to primary 
healthcare services and addiction treatment. Since its inception, 
over one million injections have taken place at InSite under the 
supervision of a nurse.

Results have been carefully monitored, and it has yielded some 30 
peer-reviewed scientific papers published in major medical journals 
that have concluded it to be a success--it saves lives.

InSite has also made the community safer--a 70 per cent drop in 
needle sharing has resulted in reduced HIV and hepatitis 
transmission. Safe needle disposal has made the streets safer for 
local residents and business owners. All those who overdosed at 
InSite last year received immediate medical attention, and none died. 
It has resulted in more people seeking addiction treatment. None of 
the fears voiced by opponents have materialized.

Harper's own advisory committee has examined the evidence and 
concluded that the site makes financial sense, saves lives, acts as a 
deterrent to drug use, has not increased crime, drug dealing or 
relapse rates and effectively increases the number of addicts seeking 
detox and treatment. Criminologists commissioned by the RCMP say it 
should be left open.

Still, Harper wants to shut it down. He has turned a deaf ear to the 
World Health Organization, which calls supervised injection sites 
priority interventions for slowing the spread of HIV. He has 
dismissed the views of Vancouver's mayor and police department, who 
say InSite helps them limit public disorder. He has ignored the views 
of BC's premier and minister of health. He has seemingly not heard 
the voices of the three out of four Vancouverites surveyed in a 
recent Angus Reid poll who support InSite. And he hasn't heard the 
voices of the healthcare workers in the trenches. He has apparently 
ignored everyone who has looked at the science and endorsed harm 
reduction strategies as essential components to dealing with problems 
of drug addiction.

Judge Ian Pitfield of the BC Supreme Court gets it. He knows 
addiction to be a complex, chronic and relapsing condition. 
Recognizing InSite for what it is--a healthcare facility--he has 
ruled to protect the program. Harper has appealed his decision.

The international science journal Nature has called the Harper 
government's approach to drug addiction a "manifest disregard for 
science," and I'm inclined to agree. The argument that addicts don't 
go to InSite to stop using drugs is as narrow a way of looking at the 
problem as any I can imagine. While harm reduction is only one 
component of a broader addictions treatment strategy and won't solve 
the tragedy of addiction, it is at least humane, and a major step in 
the right direction.

We also need a serious look at root causes, root causes that include 
the profound effects of forced dislocation and insufficient 
psychosocial integration. The effects of ostracism, excommunication 
and exile are well-known and have long been used as punishment. These 
conditions, when prolonged and severe, regularly lead to suicide--and 
to addictions. We need a serious look at the roles of brain circuitry 
and neurotransmission, the roles of hungry spirits and nutrient-hungry brains.

Concerned scientists, academics, doctors, nurses and other medical 
professionals can sign on to a letter urging Stephen Harper to 
support the InSite facility at lettertostephenharper.com.
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