ObjectivelyBalancedJournalismVille
(updated, with 'gag's, at bottom)
On balance Ian Bailey wrote a very long, detailed, and mostly informative piece on Vancouver's safe injection site (Insite) in the Globe and Mail this past Thanksgiving weekend.
Which was fantastic for raising public awareness and debunking irrational fears.
The thing is, what really matters now, with the Conservative's leaving the site hanging by a thread, is the 'research' question.
Why?
Because the need for 'more research' is a media-assisted crutch that the HarperCons use over and over again when they are asked why they haven't approved longterm funding of the project.
From Mr. Bailey's report:
In an interview, (Conservative Health Minister) Mr. Clement said he is awaiting more research on how supervised injection sites affect prevention, treatment and crime before a decision would be made on Insite's fate.
You got that?
Now, here come's the kicker in which Mr. Bailey undoes all the good he has done when he falls for their utterly craptacular propaganda.
Although there have been a number of studies endorsing Insite for steering addicts into detox and addiction programs and encouraging safe injection practices, other studies have not been so enthusiastic. One, by the Drug Prevention Network of Canada that was released in the Journal of Global Drug Policy last May, said positive findings about Insite had been overstated while negative findings were not given prominence.
What the heckfire am I talking about?
Well, it turns out that the 'Journal of Global Drug Policy' is nothing but a Shilligans' Island Organ that is financed by George Bush's U.S. Dept of Justice. And the 'study' in question consisted of no original 'research'. Instead, it criticized real research in real journals that have both real and rigorous peer review.
Journals like The Lancet, The British Medical Journal, The American Journal of Public Health and The New England Journal of Medicine, all of which concluded that Insite is saving lives, steering addicts to treatment, and doing it all without increasing crime rates.
In other words the real research has been done.
It's just that the HarperCons don't like the results.
Thus, they are using the BushCon's DrugWar-driven catapault to discredit it.
And, unfortunately, Ian Bailey and the Globe and Mail just helped them fling their crap in the Canadian public's eyes.
OK?
_____
For our original piece on the US DoJ's subterfuge please go here.
And this just in: The Cons are also working hard to gag the real scientists.
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