Canadian Government Will Comply with Drug Site Ruling

On Friday, the Supreme Court of Canada ordered the federal government to grant Vancouver’s supervised injection facility an exemption to federal drug laws. The 9-0 vote ordered the government to abandon its effort to close Insite, rebuffing the administration’s claims that the facility fosters addiction and runs counter to the government’s crime-fighting policies.

Based in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, Insite provides a facility where drug users can obtain sterile needles and water to inject illicit drugs while under the supervision of nurses. Insite was launched in 2003 as a pilot program exempted from federal drug laws under a previous, more liberal administration. Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s administration in 2008 signaled its intention to close Insite.

Supporters cited peer-reviewed studies showing Insite prevented overdose deaths and curbed injection-related infections, crime, and open drug use.

Canada’s Supreme Court ruled that preventing injection drug users from accessing Insite on the basis of federal drug laws would undermine the purpose of those laws: the protection of health and public safety.

“This limit is not in accordance with the principles of fundamental justice,” said Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin, author of the ruling. “It is arbitrary. It is also grossly disproportionate: the potential denial of health services and the correlative increase risk of death and disease to injection drug users outweigh any benefit that might be derived from maintaining an absolute prohibition on possession of illegal drugs on Insite’s premises.”

“The discretion vested in the minister of health is not absolute; as with all exercises of discretion, the minister’s decisions must conform to the charter,” said McLachlin.

“We’re disappointed,” said Harper. “We’ll take a look at the decision but we will clearly act in respect and within the constraints of the decision.”

The Friends of AIDS Foundation is dedicated to enhancing the quality of life for HIV positive individuals and empowering people to make healthy choices to prevent the spread of the HIV virus. To learn more about The Friends of AIDS Foundation, please visit: http://www.friendsofaids.org.

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