Health Minister Tony Clement recently announced plans to provide $111 million for provincial drug treatment programs, with a new set of national advertisements warning families of the (gasp!) horrors of drug use. Unfortunately, none of this money is going towards safe injection sites like Vancouver’s Insite. Unless some of that fantastic funding comes floating their way (alongside the federal government’s guarantee that they will still be drug law-exempt), Insite’s doors will close on June 30, leaving many an addict stranded in the West Coast rain.
The idea that closing Insite will actually help to reduce drug use is ridiculous. Drug users are still going to use, whether there is a safe, clean, legal place for them to do it or not. This obvious fact apparently isn’t—at least, not to Tony Clement. He keeps arguing for “more research,” but over 22 independent studies have been conducted, with almost all providing overwhelmingly favourable reviews of the site. Clement’s concerns have nothing to do with research. They are about ideology, and the Conservatives’ drive to follow the American stance on the drug problem (no matter how misguided its lead is).
The Harper government has always taken an explicit anti-drug stance. In 2007, the Tories announced a $64 million program akin to a Canadian version of the American War on Drugs (and we all know how well that turned out). Sure, the number of arrests for possession in Canada has skyrocketed, but is this really a cause for celebration when a teen with a half-smoked blunt in his car ashtray is the primary target? Isn’t part of preventing drug use helping those who are already using?
The decision to keep or close Insite is crucial. The Conservatives are dragging their feet, because either move will cause them to lose support. Unfortunately, if the site closes, the people who pay are not the guys in Ottawa, but those addicts in Vancouver soon going through withdrawal.
Clement wants out of Insite, out of mind. Who needs safe injection sites when commercials remind us that drugs are bad? While the basic intent is right, the federal government’s execution is wrong, wrong, wrong.
