The Supreme Court of Canada ruled today that the doors to Vancouver’s supervised injecting facility, Insite, will remain open. The landmark decision comes after the Supreme Court adjourned last May to deliberate on the future of the facility.

In their ruling, the Supreme Court noted "the experiment has proven successful. Insite has saved lives and improved health without increasing the incidence of drug use and crime in the surrounding area."

Some highlights from the Supreme Court ruling include:

• "The Minister’s failure to grant a s. 56 exemption to Insite engaged the claimants’ s. 7 rights and contravened the principles of fundamental justice."
• "The Minister’s decision, but for the trial judge’s interim order, would have prevented injection drug users from accessing the health services offered by Insite, threatening their health and indeed their lives."
• "It thus engages the claimants’ s. 7 interests and constitutes a limit on their s. 7 rights."

The History of Insite

Insite, North America’s first medically supervised injecting facility, has been open in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside since September 2003. The facility has 12 stalls where injection drug users can inject pre-obtained illicit drugs, using clean needles under the supervision of nurses.

Since opening in 2003, the facility has operated under a special exemption from the federal government. The facility was provided another exemption in 2006 by the Conservative federal government, to allow for further peer-reviewed research. However, they have since appealed court decisions that allowed for the continued operation of the facility.

In 2010 the B.C. Court of Appeal ruled that Insite falls under provincial jurisdiction, and that the federal government did not have the authority to shut down the facility. Federal officials appealed the ruling, bringing the matter to the Supreme Court.

An extensive body of peer-reviewed research led by the BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS has demonstrated beyond question the facility’s profound positive impact on public health and order in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside. The evidence, which has been published in the world’s leading scientific and medical journals such as The Lancet, the New England Journal of Medicine, and the British Medical Journal, is striking.

• Insite has been used by more than 10,000 individuals, including many of those most at risk for overdose or HIV infection. Since the facility’s opening, overdose deaths have fallen in the Downtown Eastside, and not a single overdose at Insite has resulted in a fatality.
• Insite promotes safe injection practices that reduce the spread of HIV, hepatitis C, and other blood-borne infections. Since 2007, new HIV infections among Vancouver injection drug users have fallen 50 per cent per year, in part due to the harm reduction services provided at Insite.
• Insite has been shown to promote addiction treatment and help link clients to detox and other medical services. For example, use of detox programs increased by more than 30% among Insite users.
• Finally, Insite has decreased open drug use in the Downtown Eastside and improved public order with absolutely no measurable increase in levels of drug-related crime.

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