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VANCOUVER'S DRUG INJECTION SITE IS A FAILURE

A free heroin drug injection site was opened in Vancouver's east end in September 2003. The clinic is a three-year $3.7 million project funded by Health Canada and the BC government.

One of the most quoted rationales for setting up this clinic was to reduce overdose deaths. But the death rate has not dropped since the clinic was opened.

In 2003, 52 people died of a drug overdose in Vancouver. In 2004 in Vancouver, there were 15 deaths in the first three months - the latest figures available. If this rate continues, there will be more deaths from an overdose than there were last year.

Moreover, the drug injection site has done little to change Vancouver's most troubled neighbourhood. Prostitution, open drug dealing and thieving are still rife in the area. Addicts are still shooting up in streets and alleys.

The main problem, however, with the free injection site is that it does absolutely nothing to change an addict's life. It's only a safe place for him/her to shoot up. Each day more than 800 visits are made to the site, which has a regular client roster of about 2,000 addicts. It is a terrible injustice to drug addicts, who desperately need treatment, to ignore their real needs of care and counseling. The site, in fact, appears to do more harm than good as it condones and speeds up the addict's drug use, which leads to his/her inevitable downward spiral and death. In short, as long as the clinic is around, addicts will continue to be addicted to the drugs because the clinic's mandate is not to stop drug use, but merely to keep the addicts alive - for another day to get yet another injection until the addicts inevitably die from the effects of the drugs. Their lives are wasted with no hope of ever leading normal, fulfilling and useful lives. The clinics are a terrible waste of money that should be put to far better use than assisting addicts in their own self-destruction.

Politicians and Health Professionals Support Clinic

Despite the serious problems with the heroin injection site, politicians and health professionals continue to support it, claiming that the clinic "improves" the lives of the addicts. In truth, the bald fact is that the clinic does nothing at all to change the addicts' lives. Their lives just stumble on between injections. International praise has been heaped on the Vancouver clinic, which is called a "pragmatic and humanitarian response to Vancouver's highly visible drug problem." The New York-based Human Rights Watch and the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network gave the site an award in 2004 for action on HIV/AIDS and human rights.

In view of the obvious deficiencies of the drug injection site, what is behind this support? The answer is that the heroin drug injection site is regarded as a harbinger for the future relaxation of our drug laws so as to eventually create a totally "open" liberal society. That is, once drug use becomes "accepted," under government control, and regarded as a "normal" practice, then resistance to drug prohibition will lessen, and objections will be more easily overridden. Advocates for the liberalization of non-medical drug use want a wide, open society so that individuals are free to do whatever they want without societal restrictions. To achieve this, advocates never let the facts stand in the way - even if it results in terrible suffering and death for addicts.

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