VANCOUVER — The Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users has invited Prime Minister Stephen Harper to tour the alleys of Vancouver's Downtown Eastside so he can see the devastation of drug abuse for himself.

The invitation was issued as advocates continue a campaign to urge Health Canada to extend the exemption that allows North America's only safe injection site to operate legally. The exemption expires in September. "Come on down and walk the alleys with us and we'll show you what we mean," said spokeswoman Ann Livingstone.

"I think he'd (Harper) be shocked," she said. "Let's at least have a dialogue on what's going to be done. It's astounding, the filth and the people, how neglected and abandoned they are in these alleys."

A group of Australian Parliamentarians called on Harper on Monday not to close the safe injection site for heroin addicts.

Harper has not committed one way or the other on such a move but Health Canada officials must decide soon whether or not to extend the three-year exemption to Canada's drug laws.

"(Insite) . . . has saved lives and transformed the response to drug users from health and social services," says the letter from 110 members of members of the Australian Parliamentary Group for Drug Law Reform.

"Our research has also shown the benefits of the injecting centre, not only in saving lives but also providing a pathway to recovery."

An assessment of the research results to date from the site are being reviewed, said a statement from Health Canada.

"The government of Canada will not consider any other similar projects until the assessment of the research results has been completed," said the statement issued Monday.

Proponents of Canada's first safe-injection site for heroin addicts have maintained they don't understand why Harper isn't committed to the facility that appears to have saved lives and slowed the spread of diseases such as HIV.

Harper told a news conference May 25 the Conservative government is still deciding on the fate of the site where addicts are allowed to shoot heroin or use other injection drugs under the supervision of health-care workers.

"I'm not committed to it," he said in Vancouver.

He said a number of agencies - including the RCMP - have been asked to evaluate the program.

But, said Livingstone, Vancouver needs three or four of the sites. One is not enough, she said.

"Politically, it was a huge victory to get Insite and to have a government-sanctioned injection site," she said. "The downside is that it's a study and not a site. It's like having running sores all over your body and you put cream on one part of one arm.

"We need a proper program. We're very happy to see the lobby to get the extension but we're extremely eager to start impacting the huge rates of disease and death in this neighbourhood.

"It's heart-breaking to see how little gets done."

The previous Liberal government approved the facility as a three-year pilot project.

While the group of Australian parliamentarians may support the site, the site has drawn criticism from the Bush administration in the United States.

At the time of the site's opening, John Walters, director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, called it "state-sponsored suicide."

An application for the exemption to be extended was sent to Health Canada in the spring, said Vancouver Coastal Health spokeswoman Viviana Zanocco.

She said Insite averages between 600 and 650 visitors a day. It performs about 200 overdoses interventions a year, she said.

Dr. Perry Kendall, the B.C.'s provincial health officer, has said there are already enough evaluations in peer-reviewed journals to suggest the site should be maintained.

The site has the support of current and former mayors of Vancouver.

"To date, the impressive research findings that have been published demonstrate that this project not only provides a significant opportunity to generate knowledge, it also appears to be an important protective factor in the lives of those individuals that use the facility," wrote Mayor Sam Sullivan in an April 11 letter.