Canada sets new rules in the War on Drugs by allowing the opening of supervised “drug injection” sites across the nation – PB/TK
Canada eases steps to open supervised drug injection sites amid opioid crisis – By Ashifa Kassam / May 21 2017
Canada’s government has made it easier to open supervised drug injection sites across the country, offering communities a lifeline as they battle an opioid crisis that has claimed thousands of lives in recent years.
New legislation passed this week streamlines the more than two dozen requirements previously needed to launch these facilities, which offer a medically supervised space and sterile equipment for people who use drugs intravenously.
“Solid evidence shows that, when properly set up and maintained, supervised consumption sites save lives, and they do it without increasing drug use or crime in the neighbourhood,” Jane Philpott, Canada’s health minister, told parliament this week.
The law builds on Canada’s previous success in this field. In 2003, health authorities in Vancouver launched Insite – the first supervised injection facility in North America – to address an epidemic of HIV and hepatitis C in the city’s Downtown Eastside neighbourhood.
By 2015, Insite had logged more than 3 million visits and had safely treated nearly 5,000 overdoses – without one death. It had earned accolades around the world for the critical role it plays in saving lives and preventing the transmission of HIV and hepatitis C, while research suggested those who visited the clinic were more likely to pursue detox programs.
Continue to theguardian.com article: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/may/21/canada-opioid-crisis-supervised-drug-injection-sites
