Closing injection site ‘perverse,' Lewis says

[CHIMO]

Toronto — It is “positively perverse” and murderous to close Vancouver's safe injection and, in fact, given its success, the model should be copied across Canada and around the world, Stephen Lewis told delegates to the 16th International AIDS Conference.

“To shut Insite down is to invite HIV infection and death,” he said, slamming the law-and-order mentality espoused by the new federal government. Insite is the safe-injection site in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside.

“One has to wonder about the minds of those who would so readily punish injecting drug users rather than understanding the problem for what it is: a matter of public health,” said Mr. Lewis, the United Nations special enjoy on HIV/AIDS in Africa and a well-known Canadian figure.

Earlier this week, Prime Minister Stephen Harper said his government's “concentration in the fight against drugs in the next few years will be on enforcement, prevention and treatment” – a statement that explicitly excludes harm reduction.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20060818.waidsweb0818/BNStory/AIDSCon/home

[MrPrax]

1. It sure is becoming tiring...

living in a country that basically lives in some moralistic ideological time warp from the 50s and whose only claim to fame is some imperialist war back in the 1910s.

It wouldn't be so bad if we had a democracy.

[gula]

2. CRAP policy:

People want it and it works, nix it.

[AlwaysQuestion]

3. Harper's a stupid jerk

I've often heard that Harper is intelligent. Do wish someone would give me some examples of his brain power, cuz everything I see him doing so far suggests the opposite. Wakey, wakey, Twit Harper, wipe those eyes of sleep and see that the war on drugs has not worked in the past; is not working now; and will never work in the future. Your punitive tactics like those of your chimpy champ, Bush's, are regressive at best. The only thing you will achieve is to expand the prison industry.

I once just despised religion; now, I'm beginning to disdain the religious.

Of course, Stephen Lewis has it right. But then, he's using plain common sense--not a strong suit for Harper. Bah!!!