A doctor who works with addicts at Vancouver's supervised injection site says Health Minister Tony Clement's slam against physicians who support the facility is "repugnant'' and "introduces an element of ugliness into the discussion.''
Dr. Gabor Mate says he is outraged by Clement's suggestion that doctors who permit or encourage patients to shoot up at the site, called Insite, lack medical ethics.
Mate, who works on the facility's detox floor, says he's spent a decade trying to help the drug-addicted and marginalized population in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside and Clement's comments only serve to stigmatize them further.
Clement told a national gathering of doctors in Montreal on Monday that the controversial supervised injection site, where addicts shoot up their own drugs under medical supervision, has created a "slippery slope.''
