FROM THE DRUG PREVENTION NETWORK OF CANADA

BC Health Officers Failure to Protect Drug Addicts

It’s troubling that BC’s medical officers passed a resolution at their biannual meeting in Prince Rupert that drug injection sites should be integrated into communities everywhere in BC.

Medical Health Officers are supposed to protect the health of citizens. They know or should know that drug injection sites will not protect the health of addicts, but instead allows their addictions to deepen, leading to their inevitable and unenviable deaths. Only 3% of addicts using Vancouver’s drug injection site are referred for treatment.

According to Ben Jenkins, President of the Drug Prevention Network of Canada,

“It is a concern to our organization that a professional such as an airline pilot, doctor or lawyer can obtain treatment for their addiction but that the poor are only shuffled off to the injection sites which only allows their addiction to continue. There is something palatably wrong with such a policy. It is also disturbing that 65 Vancouver policemen are stationed within a five-block area of the Insite to try to control the criminal element and also to escort the addict into the clinic. This can only mean to the addict that he has an entitlement to use the drugs.”

It’s unfortunate that BC’s Medical Officers of Health choose to ignore the deep-rooted problems of drug addicts who need treatment, and instead, ignore their needs by recommending only the political expedient solution of providing facilities to allow these addicts to continue with their addictions.

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Contact:

Ben Jenkins, President C. Gwendolyn Landolt, Vice President

877 222-6105 (905) 787-0348, (905) 889-1993