Pubdate: Sat, 24 May 2008 Source: Globe and Mail (Canada) Copyright: 2008, The Globe and Mail Company Contact: http://www.globeandmail.ca/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/168 Author: Robert Matas, With report from Gloria Galloway in Ottawa Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topic/insite (Insite) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?142 (Supervised Injection Sites) COVER STORY: THE DEADLINE DRAWS NEAR The Fight To Save Insite The exemption for Vancouver's safe-injection site, which allows illegal drugs inside, will expire on June 30. Supporters have fought for an extension, trying to meet with Stephen Harper, but complain he and the Tories 'are not listening to anything.' After two years of frustration, the sense of urgency is at its most desperate VANCOUVER -- Mark Townsend has been trying for two years to sit down with Prime Minister Stephen Harper for a quiet conversation about Insite, the controversial storefront injection centre for addicts in Vancouver's drug-infested Downtown Eastside neighbourhood. The federal government is to announce before the end of June whether it will waive the drug laws to allow the facility to remain open. Before Mr. Harper reaches a decision, Mr. Townsend said, he would like to give the Prime Minister a simple message: This is not about ideology or politics, this is about public health and science. Insite saves lives and helps some people get off drugs. It moves some drug injecting off the street. Unable to speak directly to Mr. Harper, Mr. Townsend has spearheaded an unusual campaign, designed to reach the Prime Minister through an ever-growing chorus of voices. Campaign organizers did not look to a public-relations firm to shape their message. They did not pay lobbyists to open government doors. Instead, they worked with B.C. politicians, health-care workers and scientists, each with their own perspectives. Often, those who felt strongly about the issue organized themselves to show their support. "It was just a lot of different people doing their own thing," campaign co-ordinator Nathan Allen said. At times, those from Insite were doing no more than co-ordinating schedules to ensure demonstrations of support do not overshadow each other. Still, it remains unclear whether this groundswell of enthusiasm for Insite is having any impact. Mr. Harper and federal Health Minister Tony Clement make statements in the news media as though they have not heard anyone, Mr. Townsend said in a recent interview. Insite has provided extensive research and has shown that the facility has widespread support from across the country, but nothing changes. "It's like they are in a feedback loop, and they are not listening to anything," he said. In recent days, Mr. Townsend has been trying to reach the decision-makers on a more personal level. Mr. Townsend is the executive director of the Portland Hotel Society, which runs Insite in co-operation with Vancouver Coastal Health Authority. He has been part of a cross-country information picket of constituency offices of key decision-makers. Mr. Townsend and two other picketers have turned heads as they showed up at Mr. Harper's constituency office in Calgary with colourful cakes from a Safeway bakery, and at Mr. Clement's constituency offices in Ontario with flowers and chocolates. They also tried to meet with Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day in Penticton, and with Steven Fletcher, the Health Minister's undersecretary, in Winnipeg. They received a frosty reception at some offices. Mr. Townsend sounded amused as he recounted demands that they turn down their music - which was Johnny Cash's version of Amazing Grace. "We said, 'We're picketing you. So you're going to have to suffer our music for a little while,' " he recalled saying to constituency staff. " 'Just enjoy the picket and listen to the words.' " They had some local news coverage at each stop and moved on. In retrospect, Mr. Townsend said late this week, he has found the Insite campaign disappointing. Despite their best efforts, statements from both sides keep bouncing back and forth through the news media. "That's the conversation we're having - that's it," Mr. Townsend said. "That's a crazy way to communicate." Clean space for addicts The supervised injection site is a collection of 12 booths on the main floor of a renovated building on East Hastings Street, a skid-row thoroughfare in the poorest neighbourhood in Canada. The facility offers a clean space for addicts to inject hard drugs under the supervision of a nurse. Help is immediately available if they overdose. Hundreds of addicts pass through Insite daily. The facility does not provide drugs but offers a link to detoxification services for those who are ready for them. The former Liberal government allowed the facility to open in 2003 with a three-year exemption from the federal Controlled Drugs and Substances Act, in effect allowing addicts to bring illegal drugs into the facility without fear of being busted. The federal government subsequently approved two 18-month extensions, while international research was reviewed and new research was conducted. But its fate is uncertain after the current exemption expires on June 30. The campaigners hope the federal government will recognize Insite as part of the continuum of care provided in the health system, a decision that would hand responsibility for Insite to the provincial government. But they are apprehensive about what the Conservatives will do. A strong anti-drug stand remains a distinguishing factor of the Conservative Party brand. Mr. Clement says he is "open-minded." But when an international police organization that lobbies for legalization of street drugs urged an extension of Insite's exemption, it was the minister's own staff who put reporters in touch with officers who hold opposing views. And when government-commissioned scientific studies reflected favourably on the site's existence, the government said science alone would not be the deciding factor. Mr. Harper arranged a campaign stop in Vancouver during the last election campaign to reassure Canadians that a Conservative government would brook no leniency toward illicit substances of any kind. "The values of a peaceful, orderly, safe society are a problem none of the other parties seem to care about," he told reporters. "We have to do something about the drug crisis in this country." Then last fall, the Prime Minister decried a culture that, he said, since the 1960s has done little to discourage drug abuse and often romanticized it. "As a father, I don't say all these things blamelessly. My son is listening to my Beatles records and asking me what all these lyrics mean," he said. "It's just there, it's out there. I love these records, and I'm not putting them away. But, that said, there has been a culture that has not fought drug use, and that's what we're all up against." AN UNCERTAIN FUTURE Anyone who spends time with the ravaged people who use Insite would never talk about the romance of drugs. Those struggling with their addiction have no doubt about the value of the facility. "It was much needed when it opened. A lot of people were going under, overdosing in the laneways," Samantha Thomas, 40, said in an interview. Ms. Thomas, who has been off and on hard drugs since her teens, has been on a methadone program since shortly after Insite opened. Closing down the facility would unwind many of the recent changes for addicts and for the neighbourhood, she said. "If they decide to close it up, I see them going back to square one," Ms. Thomas said. A 57-year-old man known as Jazzman, who has also been a heavy drug user at various times in his life, said he anticipates more crime and damage to properties on the street. "It's just going to get ugly, if they close it down. There will be more physical damage, more robberies, and on and on. No one will want to open a shop here in the future." Police officers on the street who deal with addicts outside the injection centre feel a bit overwhelmed by the Insite campaign, which they see as well orchestrated and well financed. They suggest the community needs a broader approach to dealing with drug addiction. Tom Stamatakis, president of the Vancouver Police Union, questioned whether Insite could really be described as a harm-reduction measure. "Harm reduction for who?" he said. With no legal source for drugs, Insite addicts still commit crimes to obtain drugs they use at the facility. That means people are still robbed and beaten so addicts can get money for drugs, he said. Also, after injecting at Insite, addicts return to the street with inappropriate drug-induced behaviours. Mr. Stamatakis said the policing community generally sees drug addiction as a health issue which society cannot "arrest our way out" of. Police would prefer comprehensive strategies for intervention and treatment, he said. After two years of trying to reach Mr. Harper, campaigners now feel an increasing sense of urgency to speak to the Prime Minister, said Mr. Allen, an assistant bank manager who has helped co-ordinate events. The Conservative government previously had excuses - they were unfamiliar with the issues and needed time to review the research. But the excuses are all used up and few questions remain unanswered. "It's not about science, crime, community acceptance or politics. This is a human thing ... and you have to understand that," Mr. Townsend said. The past month of the Insite campaign The Insite for Community Safety campaign began with a letter-writing effort in the summer of 2006. About 400 crosses were raised in a Vancouver park symbolizing 400 overdose interventions at Insite. In the fall of 2007, the campaign went to Parliament Hill with banners showing Insite users when they were children. A more aggressive campaign began this spring and is expected to continue until the government finally announces a decision. April 22 Canadian Association for Nurses in AIDS Care holds press conference in Ottawa. April 28 The Portland Hotel Society seeks a court ruling that Insite is a health-care facility under provincial jurisdiction and not subject to federal drug laws. May 2 The International Journal of Drug Policy publishes articles from scientists condemning the Harper government for injecting politics into research. May 5 Criminologist Neil Boyd of Simon Fraser University holds a news conference in Ottawa to release research that shows Insite had no adverse effects on crime or public disorder. May 6 B.C. Health Minister George Abbott writes a letter to Ottawa in support of Insite; a rally takes place in Vanier Park with about 800 crosses. May 7 Former Vancouver mayor Philip Owen and four mayoralty candidates hold news conference in support of Insite. May 9 B.C. Nurses Union holds a news conference at Insite. Vancouver Mayor Sam Sullivan sends a letter to federal Health Minister Tony Clement in support of Insite. May 13 Leah Martin and Joey Only begin cross-country tour to hold informational pickets outside constituency offices of prominent Conservative MPs. May 20 Retired officer Christopher Payne, a former detective-sergeant with the Australian federal police in Sydney, Tom Lloyd, a retired chief constable from Cambridge, England, and Tony Smith, a retired Vancouver police officer, hold a news conference to talk about the successes of supervised-injection sites in other countries. May 21 New Democrat Jenny Kwan introduces private members bill in B.C. Legislature to designate Insite as part of continuum of care provided for people with addiction, mental illness and HIV/AIDS - the bill would enshrine in provincial health legislation a range of services for drug addicts, including the needle exchange, provision for sterile, personal-use booths for addicts who inject drugs, overdose intervention, safe disposal of equipment and education on use of injection equipment and maintaining veins; a small plane circled Victoria and Vancouver with a banner reading: Tell Harper - Insite Saves Lives. May 23 Federal Liberal Leader Stephane Dion meets with Insite workers in Vancouver. - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom