The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
Heroin and cocaine addicts are ill and entitled to potentially life-saving medical supervision when they inject illegal drugs, a British Columbia Supreme Court judge decided last week in ruling that a controversial Vancouver safe injection site can remain open. Judge Ian Pitfield ruled that the countryÕs Controlled Drug and Substance Act conflicts with the Charter of Rights and Freedoms and also provincial jurisdiction over health care. The decision appeared to give a reprieve to Insite, North AmericaÕs only safe injection clinic (although Toronto is now considering a similar clinic). InsiteÕs exemption from the federal drug law was due to expire June 30. Pitfield gave the federal government a year to fix the law so that it no longer conflicts with the principle of medical treatment. But the federal government is not about to give up its fight to rid the country of the clinic. Health Minister Tony Clement announced that the government will appeal the ruling. While health experts Ð including a panel he appointed Ð have concluded that Insite saves lives, Clement begs to differ. ÒIn my opinion, supervised injection is not medicine,Ó he says. ÒIt does not heal the person addicted to drugs.Ó The safe injection clinic was first opened in September 2003 as a three-year pilot project to reduce the spread of disease and drug overdoses by giving addicts clean needles and medical supervision. Since 2006, it has existed on temporary extensions while the government debated what to do. Harm-reduction programs like Insite accept that many addicts are unready, unwilling or unable to stop their substance abuse and seek alternative strategies. Insite has the support of VancouverÕs mayor, the police and the provincial government. But it appears the federal government prefers to see Insite as a political football to be kicked out of bounds, to cheers from the core Conservative constituency.
