Operators of North America's only supervised injection site for users of illegal drugs have gone to court to stay open.

07:54 Insite 0 Comments

“The criminal approach leads to death. Harm reduction leads to life,” said John Conroy, representing the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users. Operators of North America's only supervised injection site for users of illegal drugs have gone to court to stay open.The facility saves lives, reduces harm to drug addicts and increases their motivation to seek treatment, lawyers argued in B.C. Supreme Court yesterday. As a result, they said, federal drug laws against possession of heroin and cocaine should not apply there. The controversial injection centre, known as Insite, has been operating under a special judicial exemption from prosecution, but that is scheduled to run out at the end of June. Site advocates fear it will not be renewed by the Tories because of ideological opposition to condoning the use of illegal drugs, even at a medically supervised safe injection site.“We are now heading into the beginning of May, and there is no indication from the government what it intends to do,” lawyer Monique Pongracic-Speier said.“The clinic has been operating in an atmosphere of continual uncertainty … with no chance for forward planning,” she told Mr. Justice Ian Pitfield. “There is an obvious and urgent need to decide the case now.”In Ottawa, as he announced $3-million in spending on anti-drug ads, federal Health Minister Tony Clement gave no hint when a decision would be made on Insite's fate.“That has to be made by the 30th of June. We're not making it today,” he told reporters.Ms. Pongracic-Speier was responding in court to the federal government's attempt to have the matter put over to a full trial, rather than have it decided during a 10-day hearing on the basis of expert affidavits and submissions.VANDU and the Portland Hotel Society, co-operator of the site, are asking for a declaration that it would be unconstitutional to apply federal drug laws against Insite users because the facility is a place for medical care, and therefore, under provincial jurisdiction.However, in a possible reflection of what the Conservatives may eventually decide, federal lawyer John Hunter questioned those who trumpet the site's benefits.“The harm-reduction philosophy is not universally endorsed by experts on addiction. It may well have harms,” Mr. Hunter said.He also played down the generally positive findings of an expert advisory committee appointed by Health Canada to assess the pros and cons of the site.According to the lawyer for the federal Attorney-General, the experts' report found no direct evidence Insite reduced drug overdose fatalities, curbed HIV infection or reduced public disorder.Mr. Hunter further noted that fewer than 5 per cent of all illegal drug injections in the Downtown Eastside occurred at the 12-stall site, where users inject heroin or cocaine in a supervised environment.“It's very difficult to assess the evidence just on paper,” he said.He said there was a need to dampen the enthusiasm of proponents for the site, which numerous peer-reviewed studies have found to lessen deaths from drug overdoses, reduce the risk of transmitting HIV and enhance the desire to seek detox programs without increasing crime in the area. Mr. Hunter urged Judge Pitfield to find that “these drugs are dangerous and harmful to persons who inject them, and that self-injection is not a medical use of those drugs, but a person's use of those drugs.”The judge said he would rule on the Attorney-General's call for a full trial after hearing evidence in the form of affidavits and other written material presented over the next two weeks. “I am mindful of the urgency of this case, with the exemption due to expire at the end of June.”Ms. Pongracic-Speier began by submitting an affidavit from a drug addict who said her regular contact with the staff at Insite had prompted her to begin methadone treatment after 13 years of using heroin.
The addict listed numerous benefits from having a safe site for injections, including the freedom to take one's time.“If you're in the alley, you're always looking over your shoulder for the police … At Insite, it's much less stressful. You can find a good vein and go slowly. You don't OD and your needles don't break.”