Pubdate: Wed, 03 Jul 2013
Source: Toronto Star (CN ON)
Copyright: 2013 The Toronto Star
Contact:  http://www.thestar.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/456
Author: Marc Ellison
Page: 4

DOCTOR URGES TORONTO TO BACK SAFE INJECTION SITE

St. Michael's chief Philip Berger says harm reduction should trump
politics

A Toronto doctor claims drug addicts he has treated would have
benefited from a safe injection site in Toronto, but it's too late now
- - most of them are dead.

Dr. Philip Berger, chief of family medicine at St. Michael's Hospital,
has worked on the front lines of the city's war with drug addiction
for more than 20 years.

"I remember the wife of one of my patients was shooting up, and he
accidentally killed her with an overdose," says Berger. "Had they been
in a supervised injection site, she would have been resuscitated and
likely lived."

A report to be reviewed by Toronto's Board of Health on July 10
supports Berger's position.

Some 54 per cent of Toronto drug users surveyed said that, without a
safe place to inject, they'd resort to doing so in washrooms or
stairwells; the other 46 per cent said they'd do so in the street or
in alleys.

The report also found that 75 per cent of drug users interviewed would
use a safe injection site - if one existed.

Dr. David McKeown, the report's author and Toronto's medical officer
of health, recommends the board urge the provincial government to
provide funding for a pilot site and register its official opposition
to federal Bill C-65.

The bill, introduced by federal Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq on June
6, outlines a long list of what McKeown called "onerous and
disproportionate" criteria that must be met before an exemption can be
granted. Such an exemption was granted to Vancouver's InSite program,
at least until 2008, which then prompted a legal challenge from its
operators.

In September of 2011, the Supreme Court of Canada not only ordered the
federal health minister to grant a new exemption for InSite, but also
directed her to grant such exemptions in other places where there is
little or no impact on public safety, and where the sites reduce death
and disease.

But Councillor Gord Perks says the federal bill, which contravenes the
court's ruling, is designed as a political tool and not as a tool of
good governance.

"The Supreme Court's decision was very clear," he says. "This federal
bill is aimed at frustrating that decision in a bid to win political
points."

Perks, who is also the chair of the Toronto's Drug Strategy panel,
adds that it was no surprise that, the same day the bill was
introduced, propaganda was disseminated to ridings across Canada
warning citizens about the dangers of heroin flooding into their
communities.

Russ Maynard, program director for Vancouver's InSite program in the
city's downtown eastside, says such sites actually have a stabilizing
effect on neighbourhoods.

"Since InSite has been operating in 2003, we've seen a 30 per cent
decrease in overdoses," he said. "In addition, 450 people a year go
straight from InSite into pyjamas and slippers at a treatment and
detox centre."

Maynard adds that, over time, Vancouver police have seen the benefits
of having a safe injection site in the city.

"They've come to realize that you can't simply arrest your way out of
these problems."

But Toronto police spokesperson Mark Pugash said that what works in
Vancouver won't necessarily work in Toronto.

"Police Chief Bill Blair's job is public safety, and he has visited a
number of these sites around the world," added Pugash. "And so he has
significant knowledge about the damage these sites can have on
neighbourhoods."

Berger said he's not advocating for a site where just any drug user
can come - rather it's a last resort for addicts for whom all other
treatment programs have failed, where they can shoot up under
professional supervision.

"It's even been demonstrated to be cost-saving," says Berger. "But
this government is ideologically opposed and sees these sites as
legitimizing drug use."

"It seems they're prepared to pay for their own moral view of the
world, (rather) than lessen the burden on the economy."
- ---
MAP posted-by: Matt