First Safe Injection Site for Addicts in U.S.

[358 winchester]

San Francisco Considers Nation's First Safe Injection Site for Addicts
Thursday, October 18, 2007


SAN FRANCISCO — City health officials took the first tentative steps toward opening America's first legal safe-injection room, where addicts could shoot up heroin, cocaine and other drugs under the supervision of nurses.

Hoping to reduce San Francisco's high rate of fatal drug overdoses, the public health department co-sponsored a symposium Thursday on the only such facility in North America, a 4-year-old Vancouver site where an estimated 700 intravenous users a day self-administer narcotics.

Hundreds of community activists and health workers attending the forum also discussed what it would take to get a similar service going here and heard recovering addicts talk about why they think it is a good idea.

Organizers of the daylong forum, which included a coalition of nonprofit health and social-service groups, acknowledge that it could take years to get an injection facility up and running. Along with legal hurdles at the state and federal level, such an effort would be almost sure to face political opposition.

Bertha Madras, deputy director of demand reduction for the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, called San Francisco's consideration of such a facility "disconcerting" and "poor public policy."

"The underlying philosophy is, 'We accept drug addiction, we accept the state of affairs as acceptable,"' Madras said. "This is a form of giving up."

Sixty-five similar facilities exist in 27 cities in eight other countries, but no other U.S. cities have considered creating one, according to Hilary McQuie, Western director for the Harm Reduction Coalition, a nonprofit that promotes alternative drug treatment methods.

"If it happens anywhere in the U.S., it will most likely start in San Francisco," McQuie said. "It really just depends on if there is a political will here. How long it takes for that political will to develop is the main factor."

Drug overdoses represented about one of every seven emergency calls handled by city paramedics between July 2006 and July 2007, according to San Francisco Fire Department Capt. Niels Tangherlini. At the same time, the number of deaths linked to overdoses has declined from a high of about 160 in 1995 to 40 in 2004, he said.

Colfax estimated that there are between 11,000 and 15,000 intravenous drug users in San Francisco, most of them homeless men. Like many large U.S. cities, the city operates a clean-needle exchange program to reduce HIV and hepatitis C infections.

In Switzerland, Spain, Australia and other European countries with such programs, the sites have been placed in existing public health clinics and created as stand-alone facilities, said Andrew Reynolds, a program coordinator with San Francisco's city-run sexually transmitted diseases clinic.

Possible locations for opening one in the city include homeless shelters, AIDS clinics or drug treatment centers, he said.

"They aren't these hedonistic dens of iniquity," Reynolds said. "There is no buying or selling of drugs on the premises. Staff do not assist in injections."

While it's too early to tell what the room in San Francisco would look like, Vancouver's InSite program is located on the upper floor of a low-rise building in a downtown neighborhood where drug users shoot up in the open.

The site, exempt from federal drug laws so users can visit without fear of arrest, has 12 private booths where its 8,000 registered users inject drugs such as heroin, cocaine or crystal meth, running through as many as two million needles a day. They can use equipment and techniques provided by the staff, and then relax with a cup of coffee or get medical attention in the "chill out" room where they are observed, said program coordinator Sarah Evans.

"It looks kind of like a hair salon," Evans said of the bustling space. "If we were a restaurant, we would be making a profit."

Thomas Kerr, a University of British Columbia researcher who has studied the program, said that while 800 overdoses have occurred on the premises, none resulted in death because of the medical supervision provided at InSite. His research also has shown an increase in addicts seeking drug treatment and a decrease in abandoned syringes, needle-sharing, drug-related crime and other problems since the clinic opened, he said.

GEE what will they come with next
A safe muder city where you can muder some one for fun and not face any charges.
I am stocking up more supplies I need to go shopping

[22WRF]

Haven't they read

Darwin's theory of natural selection

[Tom Militano]

That has to be the dumbest thing I've heard of yet. That's what we need, a place to enable addicts to shoot up. Who the hell dreams this stuff up?

[lohki13]

I am all for legalizing pot and taxing the holy hell out of it but herion and coke no.

[Pistolenschutze]

I've believed for a long while that San Francisco was inhabited only by the mentally degranged. This only goes to add proof to an already proven hypothesis. They are, in essence, aiding and abetting the commission of a felony with this action. Not only that, but it might be argued that there are Federal violations at issue here; i.e., aiding and abetting the interstate trafficing in illegal substances. I think it would be funny as hell if DEA agents swept down on the mayor and city council, arrested, jailed, and tried them.

[358 winchester]

Now that would be grand to see all of them doing 10 to 12

[Tom Militano]

Call me cold hearted if you want, but I don't feel sorry for alcoholics and drug addicts. Those are problems they brought on themselves. I'm not talking about people that became addicted to perscription drugs in a hospital. Take the money they spend on junkies and spend it on the children and elderly that can't afford medical insurance or perscriptions.

[Bruce FLinch]

I have mixed feeling about this. Initially, I thought no way. Actually, SF city officials are against it too. Which is surprising since they are sooo "tolerant" .

These shoot up booths might reduce some crime, might give Health & LE people a chance to get a grip on the problem. ( reduce spread of disease & drug distribution )

[Pistolenschutze]

Originally Posted by Bruce FLinch

IThese shoot up booths might reduce some crime, might give Health & LE people a chance to get a grip on the problem. ( reduce spread of disease & drug distribution )

I see your point, Bruce, but trying to cover over a problem like drug use in this way does not solve it, and in fact, only tends to make it worse. It is my personal view that the epidemic of drug use in this country will never be solved by attempts at drug interdiction alone. Until society places much more emphasis and blame on the users of such substances, the problem will only get worse. It seems to me that one place to start would be to make such use a serious criminal offense with an a mandated sentence no judge could lessen, and no exceptions made for celebrity figures. Now, before you say, "that won't work," what I would propose would be two-fold: First, medical help during the sentence to kick the physical habit and the psychological addiction as well, and second, assignment of those sentenced to safe but demeaning labor for a few years. There is LOTS of trash along America's roads that could be picked up, for example.

[Ursus]

What´s next? AIDS Free Centers for safe rapes?!

[berto64]

I agree with ,you, Tom. And I am one'of'em just twenty yrs. later.

I cleaned up on my own without anyone holdin' my hand or pattin' me onna head. It was Not easy.

[Tom Militano]

You have my respect because you cleaned up on your own, that takes guts.

[Pistolenschutze]

Originally Posted by berto64

II cleaned up on my own without anyone holdin' my hand or pattin' me onna head. It was Not easy.

I can't even imagine how difficult that truly was, Berto. I've seen what that crap can do to a human beings on too many occasions. You have my highest respect for possessing the guts to rid yourself of it, especially on your own.

[Ursus]

Originally Posted by berto64

I cleaned up on my own without anyone holdin' my hand or pattin' me onna head. It was Not easy.

I salute you for that!

[358 winchester]

BERT YOU THE MAN
my hat is off to you

[SouthernMoss]

We love ya, berto!

[bunnyhunter12]

Originally Posted by Tom Militano

Who the hell dreams this stuff up?

As you can see in the article they got the idea, and based the scheme on what they saw in Vancouver. Darn, stinking Canadians................... Oh, wait.................... (hangs head) sorry guys. I guess you'll find idiotic, coddling, liberal wuss bags wherever you go. I'm just sorry my local wuss bags have started sending dumb ideas south for your brand of local wuss bags to latch onto.


And to Berto, there's nothing I can say to make you feel better about yourself than you already should.

[noslolo]

Good for you Bert, I used to work in the D&A field and have found many that need support. I don't think that the support should be given in the form of a free zone that says come on in and use.

[berto64]

Let me fix their rigs for them, it'll be nighty night long time real soon.

Been an addict with 20 yrs clean & sober. If I can quit, so can the rest of those whiney bastids! Quit coddling them.

Addiction is not a disease, it is a weakness! A character flaw which allows people to hide from their problems thru addiction instead of standing up & facing them.

I know, I learned this the hard way and know it to be true. The cowardly liberals are the ones who started calling addiction a disease to excuse their own childrens problems with drugs.

There is an easy way to cure addiction but the liberals won't hear of it because it requires the addicts to be responsible for their own actions and not duck their responsibilities in becoming addicts.

Rant over.

[Pistolenschutze]

The rant may be over, but you are also right, Berto . . . when all the BS is pushed aside and the realities faced.