Pubdate: Thu, 14 Apr 2016
Source: Ottawa Citizen (CN ON)
Page: A1
Copyright: 2016 Postmedia Network Inc.
Contact:  http://www.ottawacitizen.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/326
Author: Andrew Duffy
Cited: VANDU: http://www.vandu.org/

INJECTION SITE CHAMPION SAYS WATSON LACKS INSIGHT

The Vancouver politician who championed supervised injection sites in 
that city says Mayor Jim Watson should try to understand drug addicts 
before rejecting a plan that would keep more of them alive.

"I just get annoyed at politicians who don't go out into the field 
and talk to the participants and find out what's really going on," 
former Vancouver Mayor Philip Owen said in an interview with 
Postmedia. "You can't always rely on reports from your staff."

Watson attends hundreds of community events each year, but Sean 
LeBlanc, chair of the Drug Users Advocacy League of Ottawa, said the 
mayor has yet to accept one of his invitations. "We have invited Mr. 
Watson to several events over several different years. He has 
attended none of them," said LeBlanc.

Watson is a long-standing opponent of the Sandy Hill Community Health 
Centre's plan to open a supervised injection site in downtown Ottawa. 
He has said tax money is better spent on drug treatment programs.

Owen said Watson's position is "ridiculous" and perpetuates the 
notion that drug use is a crime rather than a health issue.

"You're not encouraging people to use drugs by opening a supervised 
injection site," he argued. "You're assisting people who need help." 
Owen, a three-term mayor, battled for years to bring a supervised 
injection site to Vancouver as part of a comprehensive approach to 
that city's drug problem. Insite, the first facility of its kind in 
North America, opened in September 2003 thanks to the efforts of 
local, provincial and federal authorities.

Owen, a wealthy businessman and political moderate, was an unlikely 
ally in the campaign for a safe injection site. His eyes were opened, 
he said, after he began to meet addicts like Dean Wilson, 
then-president of the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users (VANDU).

The mayor made frequent visits to the Downtown Eastside to talk to 
drug users, and he regularly invited them to private lunch meetings 
at city hall. He asked about their families, their living conditions, 
their drug habits.

He discovered drug users were people in crisis: "They were human 
beings that had terrible lives who got hooked on drugs and now and 
then had a desire to go clean."

Based on evidence from Europe, where government-sanctioned injection 
sites had been in place for more than a decade, Owen came to believe 
they were an important part of a more enlightened approach to the 
city's drug scourge.

At the time, in the 1990s, Vancouver was facing a rising tide of 
overdose deaths. A public health emergency was declared in September 
1997 as rates of HIV and hepatitis C reached epidemic proportions in 
the Downtown Eastside.

Ultimately, Owen became so convinced of the value of a supervised 
injection site that he staked his political career on it.

"It was just the right thing to do," said the 83-year-old Owen. "We 
had to show political leadership. ... These are citizens who have a 
right to public health. And if they have a desire for help, we should 
grab them by the hand and get them to a supervised injection site to 
make contact with counsellors, and start them on the right road."

His support for the program ultimately cost Owen his job when his own 
party, the conservative Non-Partisan Association, nominated another 
candidate for mayor in 2002.

Owen said he regards Insite as one of his two most important 
accomplishments, alongside the redevelopment of Vancouver's former 
Expo lands. "It has worked - and there's proof that it has worked," he said.

In 2011, the Supreme Court of Canada concluded as much in deciding 
that the former Conservative government's attempt to shutter Insite 
was unconstitutional. The court accepted research evidence that 
showed Insite had reduced local overdose deaths by more than 
one-third, while increasing the number of users going to treatment.

Former VANDU president Dean Wilson, who's now clean after 40 years as 
an injection drug user, said Owen built the public support that 
proved critical to the site's success. "He's one politician who 
really helped us. He got it and he showed incredible fortitude," 
Wilson told Postmedia. "I really feel blessed to know him."

Wilson, 60, was the first person to use Vancouver's supervised 
injection site; he later used the detox facility in the same building 
to finally beat his heroin addiction.

"The thing people have to know is that this is not having a can of 
beer on a Friday night with your buddies," Wilson said. "This is a 
24/7 horrible addiction - and nobody but nobody wants this life. " 
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