Pubdate: Wed, 06 Apr 2016
Source: Ottawa Citizen (CN ON)
Copyright: 2016 Postmedia Network Inc.
Contact:  http://www.ottawacitizen.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/326

INJECT SOME LOGIC INTO DRUG DEBATE

In a hallway in the Sandy Hill Community Health Centre, there's a 
memorial wall of photos and handwritten notes. "I miss your face," 
reads one note. Another says: "My heart misses your heart."

And then this, which should stop you cold: "In memory of everyone the 
system couldn't help."

Each year, an estimated 40 people die from drug overdoses in Ottawa, 
many from injection drug use.

One way to help users who can't shake their addiction is to monitor 
the injection at a supervised injection site. In the event of an 
overdose, there's medical aid on site. Users might feel less rushed, 
which helps prevent overdose and infection. And more drug users would 
get access to clean needles, thereby reducing the spread of disease.

That same health centre whose little wall documents so much 
heartbreak proposes to open a safe, clean room where users can shoot up.

This sort of supervised injection site may not help everyone (there 
are up to 5,600 injection drug users in Ottawa.) But Ottawa needs to 
find a way to keep addicts alive long enough so they have a chance 
for proper treatment.

This saga of what's called "harm reduction" began in Vancouver's 
impoverished Downtown Eastside, where Insite, the first safe 
injection site in Canada, opened in 2003. Between 2004 and 2010, 
there were still 1,418 overdoses at Insite. But nobody died there. 
Instead, thousands were successfully referred to other health 
services because Insite was a crucial point of contact for them. Its 
defenders say addicts build relationships at safe injection sites and 
if they decide they want to change, it can then happen more easily 
and quickly because they have support.

Still, there are opponents. Former federal health minister Tony 
Clement has called Insite "an abomination." Interim Tory leader Rona 
Ambrose has labelled such places "heroin injection sites." But the 
Supreme Court of Canada wouldn't let the Tory government shut Insite down.

The Sandy Hill Community Health Centre is on the edge of a 
residential area. It already operates a needle exchange program, and 
it sees about 700 users annually. One study says that 75 per cent of 
injection drug users would come to a safe injection room (they would 
have to bring their own drugs); the number of people expected at the 
centre would increase if a supervised injection site opened.

Understandably, residents wonder what this would do to property 
values. Would there be more crime?

Unless Ottawa is an anomaly, the answer is no. The research doesn't 
suggest an increase in crime. "Rates of arrest for drug trafficking, 
assaults, and robbery were similar after (Insite's) opening, although 
rates of vehicle break-ins/theft declined significantly," says a 
paper in the peer-reviewed journal Substance Abuse Treatment, 
Prevention, and Policy.

To operate a safe injection site, the health centre needs to apply to 
the federal government for an exemption from the Controlled Drugs and 
Substances Act. This requires a letter from the city and the police 
chief. What do they think?

Mayor Jim Watson is obstinately opposed; so is police Chief Charles 
Bordeleau. Worse, Watson fed into the very fears that the research 
addresses on Tuesday, speaking of "the uptake in crime."

This factual inaccuracy is a problem. Watson says he has an opinion 
and has "been very consistent." Evidence, however, should trump opinion.

Watson also thinks we need more treatment beds, and he's right. But 
you can't get treatment for your heroin addiction or mental health 
problems if you're dead. That's why harm reduction matters. It's not 
the only step, but it is the first one.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom