OTTAWA - After months of hedging, Health Minister Tony Clement said Thursday the government opposes continued federal exemptions for a controversial supervised injection site in Vancouver.
The facility -- known as Insite -- operates in the city's blighted downtown Eastside on the strength of exemptions granted by Ottawa under a section of the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act.
"In this case, we have given it due process, we've looked at all the evidence, and our position is that the exemption should not be continued,'' Clement said.
He added he'll ask Justice Minister Rob Nicholson to appeal this week's decision by the British Columbia Supreme Court supporting such sites.
The B.C. court struck down laws prohibiting possession and trafficking of drugs by those seeking help at supervised injection sites. The ruling gives the federal government until June 30 next year to amend the drug law.
The site, which sees an average of 600 users each day, allows addicts to bring their own drugs to inject under the supervision of medical staff.
Studies have suggested the program minimizes harm to addicts, reduces the spread of disease and directs addicts toward rehabilitation programs, all while reducing emergency health care and law-enforcement costs.
A raft of supporters, including the city's mayor and police chief, support the program. They say it saves lives, encourages the use of detox programs and hasn't drawn more crime to the area. Opponents claim the site promotes drug use by facilitating addiction.
Clement has long said any decision on Insite would be guided by science and good public policy.
On Thursday, he cited parts of recent report by a government-appointed expert advisory panel that found no evidence Insite affects crime rates and suggested it only saves one life a year from overdose.
"We looked at science and we looked at public policy,'' he said.
"The science was mixed on Insite, but in terms of the public policy, it was clear. A better thing to do is to treat people, to prevent people from going on the drugs in the first place.''
Clement did not mention that the report's authors cautioned they had limited data about the frequency of injections, needle-sharing and other "key variables used in the analysis.''
Liz Evans, who runs Insite in partnership with Vancouver Coastal Health, said the one-life-saved figure mentioned in the report is wrong.
"You don't have to be a rocket scientist to know that of the 900 overdose incidents that have occurred since it's opened, probably more than four of them could have resulted in a death,'' she said.
"We see people overdosing in there on a constant basis and they're getting resuscitated.
"If those injections were taking place in back alleys, those people would go under. There would be no nurse there to help save their lives.''
B.C. Health Minister George Abbott says Insite was never meant to solve every issue confronting addicts.
"I don't think anyone has ever said that Insite is a magic pill that will resolve all the issues around mental health and addictions,'' he said.
"No one has ever said that. I see, and the government sees, the provincial government at least, sees Insite as part of a continuum of services aimed at assisting addicts through their life issues.''
Asked about Ottawa's drug policies, Abbott replied: "I don't think they yet appreciate that it is useful to have the opportunity to bring some stability into the lives of people who have tragically very little stability in their lives.''
The president of the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users, one of the plaintiffs in the B.C. court challenge, said the federal government's decision to appeal wasn't surprising.
"It was kind of a give-in,'' said Richard Utendale.
"The onus is on the government to prove what they were originally arguing. We stated our case and we won our case, so unless they can back up their argument, then this isn't going to go any further.''
Had the Conservatives come out in favour of Insite, they risked offending anti-drug, tough-on-crime critics who make up a chunk of the party's grassroots supporters.
The Liberal MP from Vancouver Centre accused the Tories of allowing their decision to be guided by ideology, not science.
"When the minister of health decides that his own belief overrides science, overrides what physicians say that they should do to treat a disease, then he is interfering in science,'' said Hedy Fry.
"It is not his belief that matters. It is what the evidence and the science shows.''
Said another Vancouver MP, New Democrat Libby Davies: "I don't think it matters now what information he finds. He's made up his mind.''
