Canadian drug-injection site allowed to stay open

The Canadian government must allow North America’s only sanctioned drug-injection site to remain open, an appeals court ruled on Friday.

The Insite facility in Vancouver opened in 2003 under a temporary exemption from national drug laws. That exemption was scheduled to end in 2008, but a trial court allowed it to remain open.

The British Columbia Court of Appeal rejected the federal government’s bid to overturn the lower court’s ruling that said Insite provided a needed medical service.

The three-member appeals court panel was split in its ruling. Details of the decision were not immediately released by the court.

The Conservative federal government argued the facility should be closed because the science supporting its operation was inconclusive, and there was an obligation to uphold the country’s drug laws.

Insite’s supporters, including local officials and police, said studies showed the facility helped addicts by reducing overdose deaths and giving them better access to services to help them end their drug addictions.

Addicts of heroin and injected cocaine are given clean needles to inject themselves with, using their own drugs, in a room supervised by a nurse. They can then go to a “chill-out” room before returning to the street.

The facility is located in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, which is one of Canada’s poorest urban neighborhoods, and expected to come under the world media spotlight when the city hosts the Winter Olympics next month.

VANCOUVER, British Columbia (Reuters)