An article in the Vancouver Province ....
According to Jody Patterson, the Mangham report showing the weaknesses in the Supervised Injection Site (SIS) research should be considered invalid because it was supported by the Drug Prevention Network of Canada, which is an anti-drug special interest group. And the article was first published in an American anti-drug journal. Therefore, "Beware"! (according to the headline).
Patterson also implies that former Reform/Alliance MPs, conservatives, Christians, REAL Women, and all privately-funded organizations should immediately be suspect, and their evidence therefore be discarded. She further implies that any anti-drug organization is not a valid source of information.
However she doesn't apply the same rigor to the harm reduction proponents like the BC Center for Excellence in HIV/AIDS. These people are most definitely a special interest group, and are not in the least impartial. They are, in fact, mostly pro-legalization activists and are government-funded, which should put them under even more public scrutiny, since they are spending tax dollars. And therefore they should be suspect as a source of valid information, according to the standards Patterson applies to the anti-drug lobby.
She also quotes "facts" she has obviously not researched. These "facts" have been culled from the BC Center for Excellence's own reviews of the SIS research. It's very bad journalism to use "facts" from a publication under question to refute the criticism of that publication.
There has been an increase (not a decrease) in numbers of overdose deaths (according to the BC Coroner's report) and drug related emergency room admissions since the SIS opened, and you only need to drive down East Hastings to see the street disorder is by far the worst it's ever been. I drove down there yesterday. As for more people wanting treatment, its very hard to tell. Three major treatment centers have not received a single referral from the SIS (according to an interview with one of the treatment center directors on CKNW). HIV/AIDS and Hepatitis C prevalence has not decreased, but grown steadily since harm reduction measures were established and tracking began.
I can't find any objective, third-party data that indicates the situation has gotten any better, except for a reduction in auto theft. But the evidence suggests that is a result of an aggressive bait-car program, and not a result of any harm-reduction initiative. However, the SIS proponents are quick to claim responsibility for reduced auto theft in spite of the fact that their own research warns specifically against drawing that conclusion.
In fact, things have gotten worse. Harm reduction initiatives are not making anything better. More people are dead on the Downtown East Side. And real treatment is being neglected, because there is a dominating unspoken attitude that drugs are not bad for you, and that nothing can be done about them anyway.
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