Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada took a bold step forward last year by opening a safe injection site, staffed by qualified medical personnel, for heroin and cocaine addicts. City police have agreed to not search or bother the drug addicts going in there but they have said they will bust any dealers hanging around - no "bubble zone". By doing so Vancouver joins 27 other cities around the world who are taking a positive step to try and improve the lives, safety and health of drug addicts. If an addict ODs while at the site there will be nurses there who can take immediate action and likely save the person's life.
A "safe" injection site for heroin and cocaine users? Is there anything "safe" about heroin and cocaine? Do you think these "safe" injection sites are "saving" lives or just enabling people to remain addicted to their drugs of choice? They claim it will eliminate the number of users sharing needles, which will in turn eliminate the spread of HIV, AIDS, and hepatitis as well as prevent "accidental" overdose.
What message is this sending to people, young and old? What will the ramifications be in the future if these "safe" injection sites are allowed to continue operating? Is this a positive step forward or does this go against everything that the war on drugs is supposed to be?
We've had safe injecting rooms open in Sydney a few years ago and they have worked really well.
There is a trained nurse on Staff at all times in case anyone OD's or whatever. They have information sessions about Methadon treatment, Narcotics Annonamous and other programs to get people off the drugs. And these programs are actually being used, the injecting room gives drug users a place to go and ask for help without being judged.
The rate of people OD-ing in the surrounding areas has dropped substantially. And like you said they aim to decrease the spread of needle-sharing related diseases by providing needles. They also dispose of the used needles, so people can go to parks and beaches and not have to worry about stepping on a used needle and going through the trauma of waiting and waiting to find out if they have a deadly disease.
When it first opened, there was a quite an uproar and people were saying that kids would go there and try and buy drugs off the people going in and out and sure, there was curiousity about it for the first few weeks, kids trying to peek in out of curiousity, but I doubt that anyone really dealt drugs out of the injecting rooms. After the first few weeks, the scandal died down and people lost their curiousity and the place just went on with business.
I think it's a good idea. It gets the users off the streets, helps them to keep their habit clean and the community clean, helps them to try and get off the drugs and generally looks after them.
What else can people do that's going to provide all those services if it's not an injecting room?
Yeah................ I always tended to steer clear of areas with those stupid injection houses. The number of muggings within a few block radius of those places was outrageous.
I'm not really sure how I feel about it yet. I can see that there could be many great benefits from safe injection sites, but I'm wondering if these sites are giving people the impression that it's alright to experiment with such drugs. For all the people who will seek help for their addictions, I wonder if the safe injection sites will also be an enabler for many people who never intend to seek rehabilitation for their addiction.
This is one issue that I find very difficult to form an opinion on. I can definitely see the pros, but I'm also seeing a lot of cons.
It's great that Australia has has success with it. That is definitely one of the pros -- no dirty needles littering the streets!
