Safe injection sites, good or bad?
Welcome to your Thursday morning debate, brought to you by Miss Mimi ;)
Found this one in the Canadian papers today, and as I don't particularly have strong convictions on safe injection sites, I'd like to see what others have to say.
http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/04/11/ontario-rejects-safe-injection-s...
Public-health experts had barely released a hefty report Wednesday urging Ontario to open five safe-injection sites for drug addicts when the province’s Health Minister weighed in.
Deb Matthews stressed that the province has no plans to implement the experts’ recommendations, as once again the forces of politics and science collide over the contentious idea of giving narcotic users a legal place to shoot up.
“We are always prepared to listen to good advice, and we make our decisions based on evidence,” Ms. Matthews said in a terse statement issued by her office less than half an hour after a press conference releasing the report. “[But] experts continue to be divided on the value of the sites.”
The report issued by Doctors Ahmed Bayoumi and Carol Strike on Wednesday has been billed as the most comprehensive yet produced on the topic. It calls for three sites in Toronto and two in Ottawa, predicting they could curb the incidence of HIV and hepatitis infections, the number of overdose deaths and the scope of needle use in public places.
“Toronto and Ottawa each have a significant number of people who use drugs,” said the report. “Supervised consumption facilities would be beneficial in both cities.”
Safe injection sites are based on the concept of “harm reduction.” Rather than just punishing wrongdoers, the philosophy focuses on lessening the nasty side effects of illicit activity like drug use.
The original Insite facility, located in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, was given an exemption from the Criminal Code in 2003 by the then Liberal government, backed by local and provincial governments in B.C. The Harper government, arguing that it was a “failed experiment” and committed to a get-tough “war” on drug abuse, tried to shut down Insite, only to be challenged all the way to the Supreme Court of Canada.
The top court ruled unanimously last October that closing the clinic would threaten the drug users’ health and lives, contravening their constitutional right to life, liberty and security of the person.
Well, yes and no. One one hand, yes, it is better to have them in some area instead of everywhere where they can possibly find a place to shoot up.
No, because those areas will be in places where there already is a lot of drug abuse, so those who are somewhat on the "cusp" of doing it or not doing it, can be encouraged by seeing this "safe place".
I think drug use should be seriously ,openly and continuously demonized, more than is currently happening.
I just don't get why not to open 5 rehabs instead?
Drug addiction CAN be fought. Of course if only the narcoman wants to fight it. So why not to invest money into awareness campaign and into rehabilitation centers?
am i missing something here?
I remember in the UK they used to provide condoms for such drug users to practice safe sex!
Now the question is where does the drugs come from and what are the authorities doing to ensure that illegal drugs do not enter or be harvested in the country?
The initiative is fair enough, but we should also work towards helping addicts to leave drug use/abuse and rehabilitating them back into the society.
UK, the authorities are still trying to stop illegal drugs from entering the country, and these centers have professional drug counselors there to help people who want to get clean.
These places just provide health care and clean needles.
I don't believe that these sites encourage drug use. They're only located in areas that already have a high rate of drug use. It's not like they are plunking them down in suburbs.
The thinking is if you can't stop people from using drugs, then at least try and stop the spread of diseases associated with intravenous drug use (like HIV).
Also, these centers are great places for people to get help if they decide they want to get clean, and have even helped catch human traffickers and a serial killer.
So there are upsides to them.
Well, I rest my case. It's just alarming what is happening around the world.
That's the other point, Miss Mimi, why would the government like encourage the use of drugs by providing them safe haven. I know I'm biased and one-sided on drug use issues. It's because I dont see any sense approving or sanctioning their use in public.
I wouldn't go that far.
And while I'm at it, I may add that it seems drug users have more freedom now than the rest of the populace.
I actually completely agree with you boy-next-door, and I'm sure many Canadians would.
I can see both sides of it, on one hand I see no issues with providing clean needles to intravenous drug users because that will cut down on diseases.
At the same time, they're the idiots who started using in the first place, so why should my tax dollars go to helping them?
It really is a difficult issue.
"closing the clinic would threaten the drug users’ health and lives, contravening their constitutional right to life, liberty and security of the person"
I find this statement very ridiculous. Aren't the drug users threatening their health and life already (and endangering other people's life as well)? So they make them secure and guarantee their freedom, how about the security and liberty of non-drug users around them? I guess I will never understand the idea of freedom in some parts of the world.
I'm so just playing devil's advocate with this one LOL, but, in most cases these safe injection sites are put in areas that already have a lot of drug use.
We had one in my city, and it was across the street from one of the most popular nightclubs in the city. There were never any issues though.
hmmm! looking at it that way, ... not a desirable environmemnt
The problem is if the safe injection site is in your neighbourhood Dr. Sam. If you live across the street from one of these places, you'll have junkies passed out on your stoop.
good idea. better than seeing drug addicts buying and injecting themselves on the street in public, even in front of the police. i'm talking about franckfort em mein - germany. something that appauled me.
drugged people lying on the street, and u have to cross the road to walk on the other side if u don't want to walk over them. police was all over but did nothing. they only respond to some store keeper who wants to remove someone sleeping in front of his shop.