<div><p>Canada's government said Tuesday it will ask the country's Supreme Court to overturn a lower court ruling allowing North America's first injection site for intravenous drug users to stay open.</p><p>The Vancouver site, where people can inject illegal drugs with clean needles under a nurse's supervision, has operated since 2003 under a constitutional exemption from Canadian drug laws.</p><p>British Columbia's top court allowed the clinic to remain open, despite federal opposition, saying it provides health care services properly under the jurisdiction of the provincial government which supports the site.</p><p>Justice Minister Rob Nicholson said Tuesday it's important the Supreme Court rule on the jurisdictional question. The clinic remains open pending appeal.</p><p>Nicholson said the federal government agrees that addicts need help but believes the approach of the safe-injection site, called Insite, isn't the right solution.</p><p>Insite spokesman Mark Townsend said he'd hoped the appeal court ruling would make the government rethink its approach to addiction. But, he said, Insite will fight on.</p><p>"We're here trying to do something while they've been attacking us," he said. "We told them we don't want to go to court. We see this as not a legal, jurisdiction thing, not a political thing. This is just about public health."</p><p>Insite was supported in the appeal by the provincial government. It supports keeping Insite open as a health facility, said chief medical health officer Dr. Perry Kendall.</p><p>"It's clearly fulfilling a scientific function," he said.</p><p>He called the ongoing legal challenges a federal-provincial power struggle.</p><p>Kevin Falcon, British Columbia's health minister, said Ottawa's decision to file another appeal against Insite is wrong.</p><p>"I'm disappointed because this is a program that has received very widespread independent medical journal support for the outcomes and the efforts they are making on a medical basis to treat some of the most difficult addicts you can imagine," Falcon said.</p><p>Insite sits in the middle of Vancouver's notoriously squalid Downtown Eastside, a neighborhood riddled with addicts, prostitutes and people carrying conditions such as HIV-AIDS and hepatitis C.</p><p>Due in part to rampant intravenous drug use, the area's HIV rate is the worst in the developed world, said International AIDS Society president Dr. Julio Montaner. The HIV rate qualifies the Downtown Eastside for World Health Organization epidemic status, he said.</p><p>Insite is part of combating that public health issue, he said. He called the new appeal disappointing.</p><p>He accused the Canadian government of ignoring scientific research and sabotaging a health initiative for society's most marginalized.</p><p>"They're basically pursuing an ideological war on an issue they view as criminal when it has been repeatedly show to be a health issue," Montaner said. "It's totally unacceptable."</p><p>Insite opened in September 2003 under the approval of the former federal Liberal Party government. That approval made it exempt from drug possession and trafficking laws.</p><p>Insite supervises about 500 injections a day. Addicts shoot up at 12 booths with mirrors on the walls so nurses on a raised platform can see them.</p><p>There have been about 1,200 overdoses since Insite opened. No one has died.</p><img src="http://admatch-syndication.mochila.com/images/ad.gif?aid=68776264&bid=informcom" /></div><div id="copyright"><div>

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