Pubdate: Wed, 05 Oct 2011
Source: Montreal Gazette (CN QU)
Copyright: 2011 Canwest Publishing Inc.
Contact: http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/letters.html
Website: http://www.montrealgazette.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/274
Author: Marianne White
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?142 (Supervised Injection Sites)

QUEBEC TO DECIDE ON INJECTION SITES SOON

QUEBEC - Quebec will decide shortly if it will open 
supervised-injection clinics following the Supreme Court ruling, the 
province's health minister said Tuesday.

Yves Bolduc said his government is weighing the implications of last 
week's decision from the country's highest court, which ruled 
Vancouver's controversial supervised-injection site should stay open 
indefinitely.

"I read the judgment twice and I can tell you we're going to take a 
decision accordingly," Bolduc told reporters in Quebec City.

The minister noted he has asked his department's legal advisers to 
assess the implications of the Supreme Court decision. "I'm going to 
wait for that because I want to take a good decision, it's an 
important decision." He said his position will be made public "in the 
next few days."

Public health authorities are considering opening centres for addicts 
who take drugs intravenously in Montreal and Quebec City. Based on 
the model of Insite in Vancouver, the clinics would provide a safe 
place where users can get clean needles, inject their drugs under a 
nurse's supervision and meet intervention workers.

In 2008, then-Quebec health minister Philippe Couillard said the 
province was going ahead with a pilot project in Montreal to open a 
supervised-injection site, but his successor, Yves Bolduc, overturned 
that decision.

In 2009, the province's Institut national de sante publique du Quebec 
backed supervised-injections sites, noting they can effectively save 
lives, cut down on bloodborne infections among drug addicts and set 
users on the road to recovery.

Bolduc has since then said he would wait for the Supreme Court's 
decision before making a final decision.

Addiction-support groups have been preparing to open 
supervised-injection sites in Montreal and Quebec City even if the 
province doesn't approve them.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom