Supervised injection: Insite and the Supreme Court

With the large amount of scientific support behind Insite, one might wonder why the Canadian federal government would even challenge the facility. Dean Wilson is perhaps one of the most renowned advocates of the Downtown Eastside. At a Harm Reduction Forum held in May, he cited pressure from the United States as a primary cause of the Canadian Federal Government’s attack on Insite. Dean even mentioned that the American government was willing to soften certain taxes if Canada did not open Insite in 2003—a particularly shocking notion. Scientist Will Smalls, a man whose name you can find on many of the articles published about Insite, believes that supervised injection faces so much opposition because of a general “lack of compassion for addicts,” about which he spoke at the same forum. Supervised injection appears to be a method of healthcare that society and law simply haven’t caught up with yet.

Similar to the general attitudes on supervised injection, the Canadians' opinions about the outlook of the May 12 Supreme Court case vary greatly. At a public showing of footage from the court case in Vancouver, I recall people shouting, “Theatre!” as representatives of the federal government made their arguments, which at times were clumsy and staggered. Many people are clearly confident that Insite will remain open with the decision of the case. This includes Maxine Davis, executive director of the Dr. Peters AIDS Foundation in Vancouver, who believes “the federal government will look back and regret the day they took Insite to the Supreme Court.” Others, however, see this as the end of North America’s only supervised injection facility. The state of the federal government unfortunately makes this an equally convincing prospect.

Generic Script

While addiction and poverty are very strong characteristics of the Downtown Eastside, something I noticed even more as I walked down Hastings on my first day was the passion of the residents. While the used syringes on the sidewalks and the open drug use in the streets represent the destitution of “Canada’s Poorest Postal Code,” they also represent activism. The graffiti that covers the alleyways is a petition with thousands of signatures, and each homeless addict is an enthusiastic protestor.

The residents of the Downtown Eastside are stuck in a marvelous limbo of advocacy and pride; never before have I seen such a powerful community! They march the streets and shout, “Insite will never be shut down as long as we’re on the block,” and we must shout with them. Insite must remain open if the Downtown Eastside is to recover.

This is the third and final part of a three-part series about supervised injection and Trevor Thomas' experience at Insite. Part 1, Supervised injection: “state-sponsored suicide”, gave an overview of Insight and the ideas motivations and successes behind supervised injection, and part 2 of the series, Supervised Injection: injecting the facts, discussed the evidence that supports supervised injection.