now bring me that horizon... (
the_future_modernes) wrote in
politics2011-10-03 07:46 pm
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Entry tags:
- america north,
- america north: canada,
- issues: health,
- issues: health: medicine,
- issues: human rights,
- issues: justice,
- issues: justice: crime,
- issues: justice: crime: drugs,
- issues: politics,
- issues: politics/econ./social: poverty,
- issues: politics: constitution/laws,
- issues: politics: democracy,
- issues: politics: ideology & philosophy,
- issues: social,
- issues: social/poli/econ: discrimination
YES!!!
Supreme Court ruling opens doors to drug injection clinics across Canada Sit DOWN conservatives!!
The Supreme Court of Canada has opened the door to supervised drug injection clinics across the country in a landmark decision on Friday that ordered the federal government to stop interfering with Vancouver’s controversial Insite clinic.
The Court was persuaded by evidence that drug addicts are considerably safer administering their own injections under medical surveillance rather than obtaining and injecting hard drugs on the streets of the city’s troubled Downtown Eastside.
In its 9-0 decision, it said the federal government has the jurisdictional right to use criminal law to restrict illicit-drug use – but that the concerns it cited in an attempt to close Insite were “grossly disproportionate” to the benefits for drug users and the community.
“During its eight years of operation, Insite has been proven to save lives with no discernible negative impact on the public safety and health objectives of Canada,” the Court said. “The effect of denying the services of Insite to the population it serves and the correlative increase in the risk of death and disease to injection drug users is grossly disproportionate to any benefit that Canada might derive from presenting a uniform stance on the possession of narcotics.”
In ordering the Harper government to exempt the clinic from prosecution for its activities, the Court said that the government cannot simply close down clinics based on its own distaste for legally sanctioned drug injections.
It said that the consequences of interrupting the work of the clinic could have such “grave consequences” that only a direct court order can be assured that the spirit of the judgment would not be circumvented. MORE
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