NEW YORK TIMES: Even Svante L. Myrick, the mayor of this city, thought the proposal sounded a little crazy, though it was put forth by a committee he had appointed. The plan called for establishing a site where people could legally shoot heroin — something that does not exist anywhere in the United States…
But others, including workers on the front lines of the heroin epidemic and some law enforcement officials, view the proposal as an important tool in the battle against addiction and overdoses, a way to keep users alive long enough to connect them to treatment. In the plan, users would be under medical supervision and could inject only a small amount of heroin…
Though unheard-of in the United States, supervised injection sites have existed in Europe for years — one of the first was in Switzerland, 30 years ago — and in Vancouver, British Columbia, the only city in North America where the practice is allowed. They have been linked to a reduction in harm from heroin abuse: In Vancouver, fatal overdoses dropped 35 percent in the community surrounding its main injection site in the two years after it opened in 2003 and fell 9 percent citywide…. (more)
NEWSLANC EDITOR: We visited Insite in Vancouver a decade ago and were extremely impressed how what appears to be just a store front syringe exchange actually connects to a heroin shooting gallery under nurse supervision in the back and a detox center upstairs. The dominion also provides housing as well as ongoing counseling for addicts after the detox process, as well as long term treatment by methadone and Buiprenorphine (Suboxone).
Here is an article on the subject by a ‘sister’ publication, “Drug War Chronicle” that we re-punished in 2013.
A Clean, Well-Lit Place to Shoot Dope — In Your City, Soon?
