Researchers say that Vancouver's Insite supervised-injection facility saves two to 12 lives each year by preventing fatal overdoses, the Toronto Globe and Mail reported Oct. 6.

Researchers at the B.C. Center for Excellence in HIV/AIDS compared data on non-fatal overdoses that occurred at Insite, a harm-reduction program for injection-drug users based in Vancouver, B.C., with the death rate from overdoses occurring in other locations across Canada, the United States, Australia, and England.

Insite saw 1,004 overdoes over five years, a little less than half of which could have been lethal (453) if they had occurred in an unsupervised setting, experts said.

Insite has been at the center of debate, with local police and politicians supporting the site, and the Canadian federal government opposing it. Tony Clement, Canada's health minister, contends that Insite spends $3 million annually to save about one person each year.

Thomas Kerr, one of the authors of the study, said that predicting events that haven't occurred is difficult, which is why the study's estimation of prevented deaths covers such a wide range.

The study was published online at the PLOSOne website.