Pubdate: Fri, 07 Jun 2013
Source: Globe and Mail (Canada)
Copyright: 2013 The Globe and Mail Company
Contact:  http://www.theglobeandmail.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/168
Author: Gloria Galloway

STAKEHOLDERS AT ODDS OVER SUPERVISED INJECTION SITE BILL

Key law-enforcement officials are praising obstacles created by the 
Harper government to limit federal approval of new supervised 
injection sites for drugs users.

But health experts who work with addicts say the proposed rules 
ignore the evidence that the sites save lives.

Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq tabled a bill in Parliament on 
Thursday that would require the federal government to consider a 
range of factors, including the views of police and local government 
officials, before granting exemptions to drug laws and allowing the 
clinics to operate.

"Our government believes that a site involving the use of illicit 
substances should be strictly controlled to protect everyone in the 
community," Ms. Aglukkaq told reporters. "Accordingly, we believe 
that the application process needs to be changed to create formal 
opportunities for local voices to be heard and their views considered 
before an exemption would be considered."

Authorities in Vancouver have been supportive of InSite, a supervised 
drug-injection clinic that has operated for 10 years in the city's 
gritty Downtown Eastside. The site is credited with reducing fatal 
overdoses by 35 per cent and limiting the spread of blood-borne 
diseases such as AIDS.

Other municipalities, however, have been less welcoming. Mayor Jim 
Watson of Ottawa has made it clear he does not want a supervised 
drug-injection site in his city. Neither does Mayor Rob Ford of 
Toronto. And the police chiefs in those municipalities are equally opposed.

Chief Bill Blair of the Toronto police is concerned for the welfare 
of individuals addicts, said Mark Pugash, a spokesman for the force. 
"But he sees significant harm to neighbourhoods in which those 
facilities are located," said Mr. Pugash.

The medical profession, on the other hand, is supportive of the 
clinics. Both the Canadian Medical Association and the Canadian 
Nurses Association said Thursday that supervised injection sites 
represent an important harm-reduction measure.

Mark Tyndall, the chair of the infectious diseases division of the 
Ottawa Hospital, worked in Vancouver for 12 years and said the 
problems of drug addicts in the two cities are remarkably similar. 
Something like InSite, he said, would save lives in Ottawa 
"definitely, hands down."

Dr. Tyndall and his colleagues are following a cohort of local drug 
users. He said the vast majority of them have indicated that they 
would use a clinic like InSite but "somehow their voices aren't heard."

If the new bill is passed into law, a federal health minister 
considering a proposal for a new supervised drug injection clinic 
would have to hear from a wide range of local officials, determine 
the clinic's financial sustainability, insist on record checks for 
staff, and assess the scientific evidence of a medical benefit along 
with a wide range of other factors. Meanwhile, the clinic itself 
would have to go through a different set of hoops.

The federal Conservatives tried to end the exemption for InSite in 
2008 but the Supreme Court said the federal government may not ban 
such sites if closing them would increase the risk of death and 
disease among drug addicts.

Cactus Montreal, which operates a needle-exchange program, says the 
federal government's bill took it by surprise. Officials at the 
downtown Montreal community clinic said they will press ahead with 
plans to open a supervised drug-injection site, which has the support 
of Quebec health and other officials.

"There is no question of giving up," director general Sandhia 
Vadlamudy said Thursday. "This [bill] tells us the door to getting 
our exemption isn't open very wide, but we're confident we can 
respond to the new demands." She felt the Harper government was 
taking "a more ideological approach" to the injection sites, while 
her group is committed to their health benefits.

In fact, shortly after the bill was tabled in Parliament, Jenni 
Byrne, the national campaign manager for the federal Conservatives, 
sent out a missive to the party's supporters asking them whether they 
would want a supervised drug consumption site in their community.

"These are facilities where drug addicts get to shoot up heroin and 
other illicit drugs," wrote Ms. Byrne. "I don't want one anywhere 
near my home."

Richard Elliott, the executive director of the Canadian HIV/AIDS 
Legal Network, said Ms. Byrne's e-mail was intended to fear monger.

"It's hard to imagine how anyone could expect good faith on the part 
of the government in considering an application," said Mr. Elliott, 
"when it's simultaneously demonizing people with addictions and 
stoking misinformed fear as a way to block health services for some 
of the most vulnerable Canadians"

- - With a report from Ingrid Peritz in Montreal
- ---
MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom