Pubdate: Thu, 12 Apr 2012
Source: National Post (Canada)
Copyright: 2012 Canwest Publishing Inc.
Contact: http://drugsense.org/url/wEtbT4yU
Website: http://www.nationalpost.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/286
Authors: Tom Blackwell and Natalie Alcoba

Won't Follow B.C.'S Harm Reduction Policy

ONTARIO REJECTS SAFE INJECTION

Public-health experts had barely released a hefty report Wednesday
urging Ontario to open five safe-injection sites for drug addicts when
the province's Health Minister weighed in.

Deb Matthews stressed that the province has no plans to implement the
experts' recommendations, as once again the forces of politics and
science collide over the contentious idea of giving narcotic users a
legal place to shoot up.

"We are always prepared to listen to good advice, and we make our
decisions based on evidence," Ms. Matthews said in a terse statement
issued by her office less than half an hour after a press conference
releasing the report. "[But] experts continue to be divided on the
value of the sites."

The report issued by Doctors Ahmed Bayoumi and Carol Strike on
Wednesday has been billed as the most comprehensive yet produced on
the topic. It calls for three sites in Toronto and two in Ottawa,
predicting they could curb the incidence of HIV and hepatitis
infections, the number of overdose deaths and the scope of needle use
in public places.

"Toronto and Ottawa each have a significant number of people who use
drugs," said the report. "Supervised consumption facilities would be
beneficial in both cities."

Safe injection sites are based on the concept of "harm reduction."
Rather than just punishing wrongdoers, the philosophy focuses on
lessening the nasty side effects of illicit activity like drug use.

The original Insite facility, located in Vancouver's Downtown
Eastside, was given an exemption from the Criminal Code in 2003 by the
then Liberal government, backed by local and provincial governments in
B.C. The Harper government, arguing that it was a "failed experiment"
and committed to a get-tough "war" on drug abuse, tried to shut down
Insite, only to be challenged all the way to the Supreme Court of Canada.

The top court ruled unanimously last October that closing the clinic
would threaten the drug users' health and lives, contravening their
constitutional right to life, liberty and security of the person.

In Montreal, recent discussion of opening sites there has become
bogged down in a debate over where to locate them, with residents of
some proposed locations worried about possible harms.

Wednesday's report suggests why politicians might balk in the face of
both scientific and judicial approval. The authors stressed that
opinion polling indicates that "more than 50%" of Ontarians support
the idea, yet just 37% said in a 2009 survey they strongly back it,
while 53% had mixed opinions and 19% were opposed.

And police surveyed by the researchers were almost universally against
the idea, feeling it would fuel more crime and tacitly legitimize
narcotic abuse.

By contrast, the injection drug problem in Vancouver has always been
more visible, leading even the city's police to back the idea of a
safe-injection facility, noted Nelson Wiseman, a political scientist
at the University of Toronto. Without that kind of groundswell of
support here, it is not surprising the government would hesitate to
embrace the concept, he said.

"In Vancouver, the problem is much more obvious, more apparent, more
in your face," said Prof. Wiseman. "If you're political [in Ontario],
why would you get into this?"

A government source suggested that there is nothing preventing either
Toronto or Ottawa from bypassing the province and asking the federal
government for approval to open a site.

At Toronto City Hall, the reviews were relatively positive. George
Mammoliti, a councillor allied to Rob Ford, the conservative Mayor,
suggested safe-injection sites might work, so long as they were not
forced on any neighbourhood.

"There are communities that are suffering from drug addiction and they
are the best communities to put them in."

The report was funded chiefly by the Ontario HIV Treatment Network and
the federal Canadian Institutes of Health Research.

The researchers reviewed studies conducted on the Vancouver facility
and dozens in Europe and Australia, and extensively examined the
injection-drug population in Toronto and Ottawa, surveying users,
health workers, police, business people and others.

They estimated about 9,000 drug users in Toronto and 3,000 in Ottawa
are injecting both cocaine and opiates like heroin. As many as 18% of
those surveyed said they share needles and up to 54% said they shot up
in public.

The report recommends injection sites that would allow supervised drug
use, and ideally be connected to a health facility that already treats
users.

Each of the three Toronto locations could potentially prevent two to
three HIV infections per year, and as many as 20 hepatitis C cases,
while each Ottawa site could prevent as many as 10 HIV and 35 hep-C
infections, the report's authors calculated.

They estimated the yearly cost of each site at about $1.5-million, but
concluded the potential for disease prevention made them
cost-effective. 
- ---
MAP posted-by: Jo-D