A Dose of Insite

The fate of North America's only safe-injection clinic is now in the hands of the Supreme Court.

The Supreme Court of Canada continues its deliberations on Insite, the safe-injection clinic in Vancouver that the federal government wants closed. Peter McKnight of The Vancouver Sun speaks to one of the defendents, Dean Wilson, a former addict who got clean through the facility's detox program. Beyond providing clean syringes and nurses to oversee injections, “Insite also plays an important role since it serves as a point of first contact for many users,” says McKnight. As Wilson tells McKnight, “Every bathroom in the Downtown Eastside is an injection site;” but none of them have nurses recommending detox, or administering first aid during overdoses. "Only Insite offers users physical, psychological and spiritual sustenance,” McKnight writes, and Wilson is the evidence of it.

The National Post's Barbara Kay hopes the bench will consider that Insite embodies “the soft bigotry of low expectations.” Kay cites the fact that London, Berlin, Stockholm, and Oslo – all thoroughly progressive capitals – have distanced themselves from safe-injection facilities, putting their resources toward something she considers far more worthwhile: full-fledged drug treatment. “Insite is often touted as the 'compassionate' response to drug addiction by its promoters,” says Kay. “Addiction enablement is not true compassion.” That may be, but neither is letting addicts overdose in back alleys, and the Harper government has never offered to fund detox programs in place of Insite.

As to why the Tories want to shutter Insite, Dan Gardner of the Ottawa Citizen claims that “Stephen Harper's government doesn't give a damn about evidence.” Study after study has concluded that Insite has reduced overdoses in its surrounding area, saving lives on a slim $3-million annual budget. Instead, the Tories have pushed for tougher legislation and more funding for law enforcement to counter drug problems in Canada, even though that strategy has practically never worked. Says Gardner: “Insite is a textbook example of how to do social policy. Try something new – but be cautious ... Set up a small experiment. Study the results carefully. If it fails, shut it down. And if it succeeds? Obviously, you should keep it going.” And now, it's the Supreme Court's decision to see if Insite should be able to do just that.