From the NEW YORK TIMES:
VANCOUVER, British Columbia …At 12 tables, in front of 12 mirrors, a dozen people are fussing intently in raptures of self-absorption, like chorus line members applying makeup in a dressing room.
But these people are drug addicts, injecting themselves with whatever they just bought on the street — under the eyes of a nurse here at Insite, the only “safe injection site” in North America…
Insite, situated on the worst block of an area once home to the fastest-growing AIDS epidemic in North America, is one reason Vancouver is succeeding in lowering new AIDS infection rates while many other cities are only getting worse.
By offering clean needles and aggressively testing and treating those who may be infected with H.I.V., Vancouver is offering proof that an idea that was once controversial actually works: Widespread treatment, while expensive, protects not just individuals but the whole community…
Click here to read the full article.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Some time ago, the Watchdog wrote about his v isit to the safe injection / syringe exchange/ treatment facility he visited in Vancouver. It is tragic that in Lancasater we cannot even obtain funding from Lancaster General Health to expand the minimalist syringe exchange at the Bethel AME Church offices that the Urban League had offered to operate and enlarge at the same location.
