Many Canadians, especially Vancouverites, are aware of the massive drug problem festering in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside. In all honesty, sometimes it's not a pretty place to be. And mere blocks from historic/trendy/touristy Gastown, I've heard many stories from people visiting the city of their accidental forays into the "wrong side of town."
A couple of years ago the people of Vancouver elected a mayor who promised to change all that. Former chief coroner Larry Campbell had all sorts of ideas to help people with drug addiction get off the streets and out of the vortex of petty crime, prostitution and HIV infection. One arm of the plan was Insite, a safe injection facility where addicts can come in off the street, inject their drugs with clean needles, under the supervision of nurses..and...in front of beauty salon type mirrors.
That was three years ago. Now, Stephen Harper, Canada's conservative Prime Minister has suggested that the legal loophole that allows Insite to open will soon be closing. I understand where Mr. Harper is coming from. The people who elected him do not live in big cities with crippling drug problems. Or if they do, they certainly don't hang out in that part of town. The people who elected him do not condone the using, selling or unseemly nature of drugs. It's just so dirty. And think what it does to property values.
But the government has an ethical obligation to treat people with addictive diseases. And the science says that places like Insite are a good start. They help addicts avoid lethal overdose, HIV and Hepatitis infections, not to mention giving them the opportunity to talk with counselors and medical professionals about the options for drug treatment. Studies of similar institutions in Europe have found them to be a success. Even the Vancouver Police like the place. Of course the Canada-wide police, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, have said they don't want to see the program expand until the data is in.
But the data kind of IS in. 2000 people being referred to counseling in three years? Sounds good to me. I guess scientific studies are nice and all, but when they don't tell you what you want to know about drug addicts (Mr. Harper) or climate change (Mr. Bush) then you get to discard the evidence as preliminary or limited in scope or not applicable to your location or what have you.
Personally, I am G-L-A-D to know that drug addicts can shoot up at Insite instead of littering the streets with dirty needles (I have been known to traipse about clubbing in Gastown wearing some remarkably open-toed shoes).
http://hallsofmacadamia.blogspot.com/2006/08/facilitating-death.html
Funding these places is like finding out your child has an insane compulsion to speed through red lights... and then, instead of ripping the car keys out of their hands, you go out and buy a Volvo stationwagon.
Posted by: neo | August 31, 2006 at 07:58 AM