Pubdate: Wed, 10 Feb 2010
Source: Vancouver Sun (CN BC)
Copyright: 2010 The Vancouver Sun
Contact: http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/letters.html
Website: http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/477
Author: Neal Hall, Vancouver Sun
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topic/Insite (Insite)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?142 (Supervised Injection Sites)

FEDERAL GOVERNMENT APPEALS RULING ON SAFE-INJECTION SITE TO NATION'S TOP COURT

The federal government is appealing a recent ruling by the B.C. Court
of Appeal that allowed the Insite supervised injection site to stay
open, to the Supreme Court of Canada.

In a 2-1 decision last month, the appeal court dismissed a federal
government appeal and upheld a lower-court ruling.

The decision allowed Insite, the first legal supervised injection site
in North America, to continue operating on East Hastings Street in
Vancouver's Downtown Eastside.

Insite was served notice Tuesday that the Conservative federal
government plans to appeal the ruling, which was handed down Jan. 15.

Mark Townsend, executive director of the Portland Hotel Society
Community Services, which runs Insite with Vancouver Coastal Health,
said he was disappointed by the federal government's plan to appeal.

He pointed out the courts have ruled twice in favour of Insite, and
had hoped the government would "move on" and try to help solve the
problem of drug addiction. "We wish [Prime Minister] Stephen Harper
would stop wasting court time and the taxpayers' money and start
helping to solve the drug problem in our community," Townsend said.

The B.C. court ruled that health care services provided at Insite are
a provincial responsibility, not federal, so it was unnecessary to
rule on the facility's constitutional right to exist. The ruling
upheld the trial decision in 2008 by B.C. Supreme Court Justice Ian
Pitfield.

Since Insite opened in 2003, there have been more than 40
peer-reviewed academic papers, reports and studies published in
scientific medical journals verifying Insite's success.

The reports concluded Insite prevents overdose deaths, limits the
spread of disease, reduces public disorder and moves more people into
detox and addiction treatment, while saving taxpayer dollars.

Health Canada initially granted a three-year exemption under Section
56 of the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act to establish Insite as a
scientific research project. Researchers from the B.C. Centre for
Excellence in HIV/AIDS acted as evaluators of Insite. Insite received
further extensions to operate after a Conservative government was
elected in 2006 and began to try to shut down the facility.

In 2008, the Portland Hotel Society and the Vancouver Area Network of
Drug Users launched a constitutional challenge of the federal
government's power to close the facility, arguing the site saves lives
and money.
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake