Pubdate: Wed, 12 Jul 2006 Source: North Shore News (CN BC) Copyright: 2006 North Shore News Contact: http://www.nsnews.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/311 Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?143 (Hepatitis) DON'T LOSE SITE WITH the deadline looming for Vancouver's free injection site, and the federal government showing no signs of renewing it, supporters are beginning to fear it will soon be forced to close. That they fear for the site's future is understandable; that they need to fear for its future boggles the mind. After three years of operation, evidence of the site's benefits is plentiful. A series of studies in peer-reviewed journals have driven home the point. Since it opened, the site has helped slow the transmission of HIV and hepatitis, reduced the number of needles in parks and alleyways, curbed open drug use, and raised the number of drug users entering detox. Staff at the site have intervened in 200 drug overdoses, and put 1,000 addicts into counselling. The Vancouver police, local health authorities, resident and business groups, and Vancouver's right-of-centre Non-Partisan Association have all come out on side. Yet in the face of this, the federal government has refused to commit to renewing the site's funding, or even to extending its exemption from drug laws. Looking at the evidence, one must conclude the government's hesitation is based less in logic than in ideology. To oppose such a project because you don't like drugs is like refusing an umbrella because you don't agree with rain. The free injection site program should not be terminated, but rather made permanent and expanded. A problem as serious as drug addiction requires a serious solution. It is up to Stephen Harper, now, to deliver that. - --- MAP posted-by: Steve Heath