{"id":405,"date":"2008-09-23T08:08:40","date_gmt":"2008-09-23T13:08:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/election08.cusjc.ca\/?p=405"},"modified":"2008-09-23T08:28:25","modified_gmt":"2008-09-23T13:28:25","slug":"a-terrible-mistake-or","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cusjc.ca\/?p=405","title":{"rendered":"A terrible mistake or . . ."},"content":{"rendered":"

Matthew Pearson<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Terrible mistake or terribly mistaken? When it comes to Vancouver\u2019s safe injection site, Insite, politicians and advocates continue to be divided.<\/p>\n

Former New York mayor Rudolph Giuliani inserted himself into the debate last week during a visit to the city. He called Insite a \u201cterrible mistake\u201d and said the clinic would encourage the use of illegal drugs.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Giuliani, who originally made his name as mayor by cracking down on street crime, isn\u2019t the first politician to take a swing at Insite. A few weeks before the federal election campaign began, Health Minister Tony Clement questioned the ethics of health professionals who support the clinic.<\/p>\n

Insite is the first legal supervised injection site in North America. Addicts are not supplied illicit or illegal drugs, but they do have access to clean needles and other injection equipment. The 12-seat clinic is a safe and sterile alternative to shooting up in the downtown East Side\u2019s blighted back alleys.<\/p>\n

When it opened in 2003, Insite was exempted from federal drug laws so users would not be charged with drug possession. The Conservatives vowed to close it, but were stopped in their tracks when the B.C. Supreme Court struck down parts of federal drug laws. The government is currently appealing the decision.<\/p>\n

Advocates say harm reduction models like Insite and the countless needle exchange programs across the country can be a tough sell for political parties trying to get elected.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe problem with drug policy is that it\u2019s become such a political hot potato nobody really wants to touch it,\u201d said Eugene Oscapella, a founding member of the Canadian Foundation for Drug Policy.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I were running for office and I said, \u2018We should regulate drugs and move away from criminal prohibition,\u2019 I\u2019d be a very easy target and somebody would say, \u2018He\u2019s just being soft on drugs, he wants to give drugs to kids,\u2019\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Oscapella said his non-profit group \u2014 a coterie of lawyers, psychologists, criminologists and public policy researchers \u2014 is not pro-drug, but rather pro-sensible drug policy.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we\u2019re looking for are rational policies that minimize the harms associated with drugs,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He added the current government\u2019s approach is led by ideology, not evidence.<\/p>\n

\u201cDrug policy is not being driven by rational evidence, it\u2019s being led by ideology \u2014\u00a0very punitive, backwards ideology,\u201d Oscapella said.<\/p>\n

Others say the Conservatives are heading in the right direction.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe proper response of the government is to continue to educate people in the dangers of drug use and continue a strong law enforcement element,\u201d said Joseph Ben-Ami, president of the Canadian Institute for Policy Studies, a right-of-centre think-tank.<\/p>\n

He said the Conservatives are closer to \u201cgetting it right\u201d than any other federal party, but added the health minister was a bit slow on the uptake when it came to Insite.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were a little surprised it took him so long to speak out on it, but now he has. We\u2019re in pretty strong agreement with the kinds of things he\u2019s been saying,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Ben-Ami questioned how proponents of Insite could suggest it has helped lower the neighbourhood\u2019s crime rate.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery time they said they were reducing crime, by definition they weren\u2019t. Everybody who went into Insite purchased drugs illegally,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s counterintuitive.\u201d<\/p>\n

If the Conservatives\u2019 position on the issue wasn\u2019t clear before, a mailing last month into key urban ridings across the country \u2014 including the Vancouver East riding where Insite is located \u2014 leaves little room for doubt. The flyer showed a discarded syringe under the headline, \u201cJunkies and drug pushers don\u2019t belong near children and families. They should be in rehab or behind bars.\u201d<\/p>\n

Oscapella called it \u201cpropaganda\u201d and said the use of the word \u201cjunkies\u201d was derogatory.<\/p>\n

As for the opposition parties, he credited the Liberals for opening Insite and legalizing access to medicinal marijuana. The party\u2019s public health critic, Toronto MP Dr. Carolyn Bennett, said the issue of harm reduction is more complex than people think.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>\u201cYou have to reduce harm in order to have people live long enough to get help,\u201d she said. \u201cJust like smoking, it sometimes takes people three, four, five or six times to actually get off drugs,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Oscapella said the NDP recognizes that prohibition causes more harm than good. Vancouver East remains one of the party\u2019s most bankable ridings and its MP, Libby Davies, is an outspoken Insite supporter.<\/p>\n

The Green Party platform calls for increased funding for harm reduction initiatives. But deputy leader Adrienne Carr said it\u2019s only one piece of the puzzle.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>\u201cIt doesn\u2019t replace the need for prevention, nor for treatment, but we believe clinics like Insite must be supported. In fact, we need more Insites across the country,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

While the story of this election campaign is still being written, Oscapella said he doubted harm reduction would be a major chapter.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>\u201cIt\u2019s not going to get the play it deserves to because this is a massive social problem we\u2019ve created through the way we\u2019ve chosen to deal with drugs,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Matthew Pearson is a student in the Master of Journalism program at the School of Journalism and Communication at Carleton University.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Matthew Pearson Terrible mistake or terribly mistaken? When it comes to Vancouver\u2019s safe injection site, Insite, politicians and advocates continue to be divided. Former New York mayor Rudolph Giuliani inserted himself into the debate last week during a visit to the city. He called Insite a \u201cterrible mistake\u201d and said the clinic would encourage the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-405","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-election2008","category-election-2008-student-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cusjc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/405","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cusjc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cusjc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cusjc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cusjc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=405"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.cusjc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/405\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":412,"href":"https:\/\/www.cusjc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/405\/revisions\/412"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cusjc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=405"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cusjc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=405"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cusjc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=405"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}