Mr. Speaker, I find it sad that members on the other side of the House do not truly understand what a complex issue drug addiction is.
We do not support anyone engaging in illegal activities. However, I do not think that the best solution is to put on blinders, believe that the problem does not exist and shut down supervised injection sites, which help drug addicts recover. All this does is hide the problem and undermine the existing solutions that have proven their worth.
I would like to share some facts about Insite with my colleague on the other side of the House.
A 2006 study conducted by Tyndall et al. revealed that over the course of a year, 2,171 Insite users had been referred to drug addiction counselling services or other support services.
Here is how Insite works: the supervised injection site is located on the first floor, while on the second floor, a whole range of people work to help these drug addicts overcome their addiction. Furthermore, in committee we heard some clear examples of people who managed to overcome their addiction with the help of those working at the Insite supervised injection site.
If the member reads the “blues” from the committee, he will even see that most of his Conservative colleagues were quite moved by this testimony and agreed with what the witnesses had to say on this topic.