It's not an extension, it's a deferral, dammnit

Health Minister Tony Clement has "deferred" a decision on keeping Vancouver's supervised injection site open for another year and a half.

"Do safe injection sites contribute to lowering drug use and fighting addiction?" Clement asked himself rhetorically in a statement released late this afternoon. "Right now the only thing the research to date has proven conclusively is drug addicts need more help to get off drugs.

"Given the need for more facts, I am unable to approve the current request to extend the Vancouver site for another three and a half years."

A bit of commentary here:

Conspicuous in its absence from the minister's statement was any discussion of or argument against the largely positive research results from Insite's first three years of existence. As Health Minister, Clement has every right to shut the project down now if he saw evidence Insite wasn't serving its purpose. Instead, he extended its legal exemption, albeit draping his extension in a "deferral".

But buried in this afternoon's press release: In addition to its original mandate of evaluating HIV transmission, overdose rates, public injection and treatment referrals, Clement now wants Insite research to look at how the facility affects crime and drug prevention.

Crime reduction is the domain of law enforcement and prevention is the domain of the federal government's non-existent national drug strategy. Yet the minister would believe a small facility that receives all of $500,000 in federal funds must now somehow tackle what police and government policy have been unable to control. Hmm.

It's not Insite that's been granted a reprieve - it's Clement who's bought himself time to shut it down.

And now, back to your regularly scheduled programming.

Tags: vancouver, safe injection site, downtown eastside,addiction, harm reduction