VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) - With the the fate of Vancouver's supervised injection site to be decided by the country's highest court, the world is watching.
The Supreme Court of Canada announced it will hear Ottawa's appeal of a lower court ruling that allowed the Insite clinic to stay open, exempt from federal drug laws.
The executive director of the Dr. Peter AIDS Centre, Maxine Davis, has come out swinging. "I see the federal government pandering to a section of Canadians who view drug use as a criminal issue rather than the serious health issue that it really is."
The Dr. Peter Centre is a big backer of Insite and the harm reduction care model, and yesterday she says they hosted a delegation of impressed Russian health officials. "Vancouver in the eyes of the international community is an absolute success when it comes to getting an epidemic under control. And I don't think, locally, we grasp that."
And in her mind, neither does Ottawa. Davis points out that in Eastern Europe, 85 per cent of all new HIV infections come from injection drug use, calling it an epidemic out of control. "On the Downtown Eastside, 17 per cent of the population is HIV positive. It is similar to Botswana. But today, new HIV transmissions are at an all-time low - less than one per cent."
Davis says other countries come to Vancouver to see what is being done right. "It's too bad our government doesn't get it."