This past Wednesday, former Vancouver mayor, Senator Larry Campbell spoke to UW students at a near full BMH auditorium. He was one of the most influential politicians in the decision to build Insite, a pro-social and progressive safe injection site in Vancouver.

He began with a description of the four-pillar approach to ending drug abuse employed by so many health facilities, including Insite -- the supervised injection site that opened in September 2003. Campbell explained that "the system is based on treatment, law enforcement, harm reduction and prevention -- which all stem from the basic goals of the facility." As a former Canadian mountie narc, Campbell is no stranger to the severely detrimental effects of drug abuse -- and in particular, injectable drugs like heroin and cocaine.

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