More Than Harm Reduction

This will be part 1 of a few posts discussing a passion of mine, harm reduction, one of the ways to extend a hand-up to poor.
I am shocked at how many people don't know that Canada is home to North America's only safe-injection site. While the down-town east-side of Vancouver is known for it's dark reputation of having a seriously high concentration of hard-to-reach addicted drug-users, and homeless people -some struggling with mental health issues, really good efforts going on in the area sometimes fail to be mentioned or recognized.

InSite is an amazing place. Simply put, people can go there and safely inject their drugs – drugs such as morphine, cocaine, and heroin. To be clear, these drugs are not provided. The safe equipment, support staff (nurses, social workers, etc), and detox information are why people use this service as opposed to injecting in a back alley a couple of blocks away and then discarding the needle on the street.

Feathers are often ruffled and questions like "How why is our government allowing this?" are usually raised at this point. Those feelings and questions are valid. I understand the concerns, but as I have been able to research InSite in some depth in 2008, I would be more than happy to assure you of a few things and let you in on some very hopeful, uplifting facts and statistics.

From 2003, InSite has functioned under an exemption to the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act. This was extended a number of times and in 2008, the Supreme Court Justice Ian Pitfield gave the government of Canada until June 2009 to ammend the law so that InSite can remain open. Why?

“In a 60-page ruling released Tuesday, Pitfield found that sections of the federal Controlled Drugs and Substances Act are inconsistent with Section 7 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Pitfield says in his ruling that denying access to the site ignores the illness of addiction.”

Find more of that CBC news article here.

Well, the government appealed this decision. Their appeal *what I like to refer to as their tantrum* will be heard in April.

Have a look at these statistics from 2007:



Have a look at this youtube video:


Adelaide is now awake so this will have to be it for part one. Stay tuned for part two, folks!