Pubdate: Wed, 26 Feb 2014
Source: Maple Ridge News (CN BC)
Copyright: 2014 Maple Ridge News
Contact:  http://www.mapleridgenews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1328
Author: Neil Corbett
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?131 (Heroin Maintenance)

FORUM LOOKS AT PRESCRIPTION HEROIN

Event Focuses on Danish Documentary, Takes Place at Riverside Centre

Anyone for Coffee and Heroin?

That facetious invitation is the name of a documentary that will be 
one of the highlights of a forum in Maple Ridge next week about the 
prescription heroin controversy.

The forum goes at 1 p.m. on March 4 at Riverside Centre Auditorium 
(20575 Thorne Ave., west of 207th Street), and discusses the heroin 
controversy between Health Canada and the federal Conservative government.

Dale Hardy, who teaches Social Justice 12 at Riverside elementary, is 
organizing the event.

The forum panel will include a representative of the Pivot Legal 
Society, who will outline the legal case against the government.

Health Canada approved prescription heroin for 16 addicts in the 
Lower Mainland, but a month later Health Minister Rona Ambrose vetoed 
the approval. She removed prescription heroin from the drug access program.

In November 2013, a group of five heroin addicts, represented by 
Pivot and Providence Health, took the federal government to court 
over the matter.

Hardy said the government's argument is ideological, while Health 
Canada's is based on science.

Between 2002 and 2010, there were 1,654 deaths from illicit drug 
overdoses in the province, according to the BC Centre of Addiction Research.

Although there have been hundreds of overdoses at InSite, there have 
been no deaths. Hardy said the numbers prove there is a medical 
rationale for prescription heroin.

"It seems counter intuitive to many people, but addicts stabilize 
when they receive their drug from a doctor as opposed to a dealer or 
pimp," said Hardy.

One of his students, Harley Adams, is looking forward to the forum.

"We need to get the truth out there, instead of some government 
propaganda," he said.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom