Vancouver's Safe-Injection Clinic Cut Deaths by a Third

A study in The Lancet found the Insite clinic in the heart of the Downtown Eastside to be especially effective in reducing drug overdoses.

Vancouver's safe-injection clinic, the only such program in North America, helped cut the number of deaths due to drug overdose in the area by 35 per cent after its launch in 2003. According to a study published this week by researchers from Johns Hopkins University in the medical journal The Lancet, the Insite clinic in the drug-ravaged Downtown Eastside should be the template for other cities looking to curb their drug problems. At Insite, heroin and cocaine users are given free, sterilized needles to shoot up, and are attended to by a nursing staff while they ride out the high. The federal government wants to close down the facility, but successive court rulings have kept Insite open. The case is to go before the Supreme Court in May.