Health minister Jane Philpott ‘incredibly moved’ by Insite supervised injection site visit

In yet another sign of that Justin Trudeau’s Liberals have a very different approach to drugs than the previous government, federal Health Minister Jane Philpott yesterday toured Insite, the long-standing supervised injection site on Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside and called the experience “incredibly moving.”

That might not seem remarkable; numerous peer-reviewed studies have shown that Insite saves lives, and Philpott just last week granted a second approval for a second supervised injection site already operating in Vancouver.

But it’s a stark contrast to her Conservative predecessors who not only philosophically opposed Insite but fought against it in court and last year passed a bill making it harder to open new supervised injection sites.

Today, Philpott said she was “deeply impressed” with her visit and had followed Insite for years in her work as a family physician.

“I’ve always known that what they do absolutely saves countless lives. It has a huge impact on people,” she said Thursday.

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