A peer-reviewed study of Vancouver's safe drug injection site find that the s facility is saving lives.
The research, published in The Lancet medical journal, finds the Insite clinic has helped reduce the number of fatal overdoses in the area surrounding the facility by 35 per cent.
The Downtown Eastside clinic, which is the first of its kind in North America, provides heroin and cocaine addicts with clean needles and a private room where they can inject themselves with their own drugs. Nurses are on hand to supervise and addicts are allowed to stay in a "chill-out" room before returning to the streets.
The study found that between 2001 and 2005 there were 89 overdose deaths (a third of all Vancouver overdoses) that occurred within 500 metres of Insite.
After Insite opened, fatal overdoses dropped 35 per cent in the surrounding area, compared to 9 per cent in the rest of Vancouver.
The authors of the study say the facility is working to reduce overdoses and should be used as a model in other cities.
"Closing Insite would likely lead to unnecessary and preventable deaths due to overdose," the authors of the study said.
"(Safe injection sites) should be considered where injection drug use is prevalent, particularly in areas with high densities of overdose."
The Conservative government has gone to the Supreme Court of Canada in a bid to shut down Insite, which has operated in Vancouver's notorious Downtown Eastside since 2003.
The study's authors called on the government to drop its appeal.
"It's time for the federal government to recognize the overwhelming scientific evidence in support of supervised injection sites, halt its legal maneuvering to close Insite, and allow facilities such as Insite to open in other Canadian cities.," co-author Dr. Julio Montaner, the chair of AIDS Research in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of British Columbia, said in a release.
The B.C. Supreme Court and B.C.'s Appeal Court have both ruled in favour of keeping Insite operating with federal government money.
"This case raises important questions regarding the doctrine of interjurisdictional immunity and the division of powers between the federal and provincial governments," Justice Minister Rob Nicholson said in a statement at the time of the government's appeal.
"There was a dissenting opinion in the B.C. Court of Appeal, and the government of Canada believes it is important that the Supreme Court of Canada be asked to rule on this matter."
A review in the Canadian Medical Association Journal last year also approved of the Insite program saying it reduces needle sharing, cuts overdose deaths and allows for addiction treatment.
