safe injection facility

InSite saves addicts lives

Submitted by Jacob Hunter on Mon, 03/15/2010 - 11:04am
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By Liz Evans, For The Calgary Herald

About a month ago, In-Site staff came to work in the morning and found a woman lying, in tears, in crisis, in the street outside the facility in Vancouver's downtown eastside.

Trauma Mama (In-Site users check-in at the reception desk using pseudonyms) had been visiting the facility for four years to inject cocaine, so they knew her well and approached, hoping to help.

Thirty-nine years old, but looking more like she was in her late 40s, Trauma had been using heavily, she hadn't slept in days and she had just been robbed. Staff took her to the site's lounge and gave her a blanket and fluids. Two weeks later she came in, used the injection room, then approached In-Site's counsellor and asked to be admitted to the OnSite detox and recovery facility upstairs.

Leading drug reformer from U.S. visits injection site

Submitted by Jacob Hunter on Thu, 02/25/2010 - 3:57pm
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By. Mike Howell
The leading crusader in the U.S. for drug policy reform got his first look at the city’s supervised drug injection site last week.

Dr. Ethan Nadelmann, the founder and executive director of the New York-based Drug Policy Alliance, came away impressed after his visit Friday to Insite on East Hastings.

“I thought it was fantastic,” Nadelmann told the Courier on the sidewalk outside the injection site.

Conservatives to ask top court to rule on Vancouver safe-injection site

Submitted by Jacob Hunter on Tue, 02/09/2010 - 4:52pm
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By Neal Hall, Vancouver Sun

The federal government is appealing the recent ruling of the B.C. Court of Appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada.

B.C.'s appeal court, in a 2-1 decision last month, upheld the lower court ruling that dismissed the federal government appeal.

The appeal ruling allowed Insite, the first legal supervised injection site in North America, to continue operating on East Hastings in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside.

Insite was served notice Tuesday that the Conservative federal government plans to appeal the B.C. Appeal Court ruling, which was handed down Jan. 15.

Insite safe drug-injection site sues critic for defamation over article

Submitted by Jacob Hunter on Thu, 09/03/2009 - 9:29am
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By Steve Mertl (CP)

VANCOUVER, B.C. — The operators of Vancouver's controversial drug safe-injection site are suing one of its critics for defamation and slander over a two-year-old article.

But a co-founder of Insite says the suit's real target is the RCMP, which he says commissioned the article in an effort to discredit the operation.

"What this is ultimately about is about a conspiracy within the RCMP to get involved in a political debate around health," Insite director Mark Townsend said Wednesday in an interview.

"They commissioned a report that had blatant inaccuracies in it, which they refused to correct, and we want them corrected."

The PHS Community Services Society, which runs the Insite facility on Vancouver's drug-ridden Downtown Eastside, alleges in its writ of summons that drug-prevention expert Colin Mangham injured the group's character, credit and reputation.

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