Drug users taking Abbotsford to court over needle program
Posted May 21, 2013 4:17 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
ABBOTSFORD (NEWS1130) – A group of drug users are planning to take the City of Abbotsford to court over their refusal to provide a needle exchange program.
The debate has been ramping up over the last few years says Scott Bernstein with the Pivot Legal Society who is representing the group.
The bylaw has been on the books since 2005.
“One hope we have is getting a decision out of the BC Supreme Court that says municipalities have to stay out of the business of legislating health care, plain and simple. That they can’t put these types of decisions up for public opinion polls,” says Bernstein.
A Fraser Health report recently found more people are ending up in the hospital after overdosing in that city than in other nearby cities.
The health authority’s David Portesi says the city’s Hepatitis C rate is also about 10 per cent higher than the rest of the province, and having a harm reduction strategy is the right thing to do.
“My clients believe it is the experts, the doctors and the scientists who should decide how health care is delivered,” adds Bernstein.
Bernstein says the BC/Yukon Association of Drug War Survivors is behind this push. “It promotes people who use drugs into getting into treatment facilities when they are ready to do it. Harm reduction does not require people to be abstinent in order to get life saving health care.”
