Insite under attack once again
06/29/2010 - Vancouver's safe injection site is under attack again from the same source as always, the federal government. You would
think these guys would learn. Their constant poking and prodding had the courts toss out the federal drug laws for a time. I have no idea what the status of that is
or if it's even been dealt with.
Mr Harper must be feeling his Oats now that he has managed to appoint more senators in a short three years than at any time in Canadian history.
Harper blamed the senate for the defeat of all his crime legislation, but it was his proroguing of parliament that had all that and many other bills thrown in
the garbage (where it belonged).
This is the same government that held Insite's waiver from federal drug laws (you begin to see a connection here) up for over three years and 50 studies.
Another group,the Doctor Peter Foundation, an aids awareness group, opened a site giving clean needles because the waiver needed for that service was held up for so long.
Harper and his Conservatives (they were the Reform and Canadian Alliance but couldn't get the votes) cronies are putting ideology in front of science for the
umpteenth time.They are a mainly born again Christian group of politicians, and are rabidly anti-drug. Harper's opposition to marijuana is as rabid as it is against the
addicts that he despises so much. He seems to see AIDS protection as unsavory as as any and all harm reduction strategies, although he manages to hide that fact behind
a barrage of rhetoric.He wants to bring Canada's drug laws in line with those of the US, and was happy to send Marc Emery to a Federal Prison in the state of
Washington for a 5 year stint for a crime that doesn't exist in this country.
This and RCMP collusion in the arrest of a B.C. gang leader which required a lot of hanky-panky between the governments of the US, Mexico and Canada is the kind
of "justice"we will see as long as Stephen Harper is in charge in this country. We have gone from steadily gaining ground in the fight for reform to a steady slide back toward
the horrors of the past. With the current situation in Canadian politics, the left and center parties in disarray, it doesn't look good for reform-minded people in this country.
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Source: Stop the Drug War (DRCNet)
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