Pubdate: Sat, 01 Oct 2011 Source: Toronto Sun (CN ON) Copyright: 2011 Canoe Limited Partnership Contact: http://torontosun.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/457 Author: Jessica Murphy, Parliamentary Bureau HAPPY HEROIN USERS OTTAWA - Canada's top court has given Vancouver's supervised drug-injection site a stay of execution. In a unanimous decision released Friday, the Supreme Court ruled the Conservative government must grant Insite immediate immunity from federal drug laws - and that comes with no expiry date. To force the site to close "would have been to prevent injection drug users from accessing the health services offered by Insite, threatening the health and indeed the lives of potential clients," Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin wrote in the ruling. Shuttering the facility would therefore contravene the Section 7 charter rights - of life, liberty and security - of addicts. The decision says the health benefits for intravenous drug users offered by Insite outweigh the benefits of an absolute prohibition on street drug possession at Insite. Prime Minister Stephen Harper said he is "disappointed" with the ruling, but the government will comply with the decision. Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq said the government believes policy should focus on keeping people from becoming drug addicts in the first place and has boosted funding to "existing treatment efforts." The ruling opens the door to similar facilities across Canada, and Quebec has expressed interest in the model. The legal battle began in 2007, when Insite asked the B.C. Supreme Court for a permanent exemption from federal drug laws to keep clients and staff from being prosecuted for possession and trafficking. The court ruled in Insite's favour, but the Conservative government appealed the decision. The eight-year-old facility gives users < who bring their own drugs to the site - clean equipment as well as a place to shoot up under the supervision of nurses. Canadian Medical Association president John Haggie argues it saves lives, reduces the spread of disease and helps funnel drug addicts into treatment. "We'd like to see it as part of a comprehensive national strategy to deal with drug addiction," he said. Dean Wilson, a plaintiff in the case and a former addict, said the ruling legitimized his long fight to keep Insite open. "But while the battle of Insite is over, the battle of addiction and the battle of sick people in our inner cities is not over in a long shot," he said. Critics, however, say the facility is nothing but a provincially funded shooting gallery and a haven for illegal drug use. "It's a matter of the court deciding arrogantly, and very arbitrarily that they know better than the federal government," said Gwendolyn Landolt, president of the Drug Prevention Network of Canada. "It's a matter of ideology." Insite is the only facility of its kind in North America. - --- MAP posted-by: Richard R Smith Jr.