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.
- Safe injection site law ‘whips up’ Tory base, may block new facilities
- Harm reduction more effective than war on drugs in B.C.
- Vancouver’s Insite drug injection clinic will stay open
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.