Injection sites dealt a severe blow

published on June 7, 2013

Injection sites dealt a severe blow

Proposed law adds red tape, but Insite supporters confident facility will survive

Supporters of Canada's only supervised injection site said Thursday they're confident Vancouver's Insite facility will survive a new legislative and political campaign launched by the Harper government against drug "harm reduction" programs.

But they also said Ottawa's latest volley appears destined to succeed in preventing the opening of new centres offering clean needles and nursing supervision to addicts elsewhere in B.C. and Canada.

That, according to Dr. Julio Montaner, will deprive the rest of Canada of the life-saving benefits of Insite that he said have been consistently demonstrated in academic studies.

"There is a remarkable difference between the HIV epidemic in B.C. and the rest of Canada," said Montaner, a University of B.C. professor and director of the B.C. Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS.

Before 1996, he said, there were 400 new infections every year in B.C. among injection drug users, and that figure has been shrunk to 30 despite major population growth.

"That's a more than 90-percent reduction. Why do you think that is?" Other provinces have had far more mixed results, while HIV rates have jumped in Manitoba and soared in Saskatchewan.

Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq, who has not visited the Insite facility in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside since she was assigned the health portfolio in 2008, announced legislation Thursday setting up two dozen strict criteria before Ottawa will allow facilities to operate when users are using illegal drugs.

Insite, which opened in 2003 under an exemption granted by the former Liberal government, has survived thanks to a 2011 Supreme Court of Canada ruling which found that Ottawa's attempt to close it threatened to undermine the health, safety and rights of addicts.

If the Respect for Communities Act is made law by early 2014, Insite will need to apply for a further extension in March under the new and far more stringent guidelines, which require the minister to consider numerous factors before supporting such a program.

The health minister would need letters of endorsement from provincial and municipal governments, local police forces (including the federal government's own police department, the RCMP, which polices the vast majority of B.C. cities and towns), health authorities, and support of a "broad range of community groups."

Aglukkaq refused to say what specific threshold she'd Year require, and her officials later said it's up to the minister's "discretion."

Insite's backers said they doubt Ottawa would dare defy the 2011 court ruling by withholding an extension for Insite, which has long had the support of the B.C. government, the city and the Vancouver police department.

But they said the bill comes close to being a mortal blow for groups that have made unsuccessful overtures to open facilities in cities like Victoria and Abbotsford, and in Ottawa, Toronto and Montreal.

By Peter O'Neil, Vancouver Sun

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Julio Montaner

BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS

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Injection sites dealt a severe blow

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