Could supervised injection sites save lives? – By Sarah Matusek (CS Monitor) / Dec 17 2019
Conflicting perceptions of safety seem to drive the debate on safe injection sites. Critics argue they enable drug use. Supporters say they enable survival.
The ongoing overdose crisis is pushing public health officials to consider new tools. In 2017, drug overdoses in the United States claimed more than 70,000 lives. Nearly 7 out of 10 involved opioids.
Last year logged a slight decline in fatal overdoses, provisional data show. But communities countrywide remain desperate to save more neighbors. Harm reduction advocates admit there is no panacea to the public health crisis. But they urge a new intervention: supervised consumption sites.
What exactly are they?
Also called safe injection facilities or overdose prevention sites, these venues permit the use of previously obtained illicit drugs in a clean space with medical supervision. Staff are trained to reverse overdoses, provide sterile supplies, and offer a bridge to recovery services.
More than 100 of them operate worldwide. Multiple U.S. cities have mulled opening these sites, but legal uncertainty, community concerns, and stigma have stalled plans.
The American Medical Association endorses a pilot site. Many public health officials consider supervised consumption lifesaving. They note health risks of drug use in unhygienic public spaces, plus the rise in overdose deaths involving fentanyl – a potent synthetic opioid that can trigger an overdose within seconds.
Jessie Gaeta, chief medical officer at Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program, says despite medical monitoring available to individuals who are over-sedated, around five overdoses occur weekly in and around her building. At an October advocacy event at the Massachusetts statehouse, Dr. Gaeta said not allowing supervised consumption “feels like a treatment gap.”
Domingos DaRosa supports treatment, but not supervised consumption. The Boston native doesn’t like the idea of permitting use of illegal drugs. As a black man, he says he’s also wary the sites could attract increased law enforcement.
Continue to article: https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Society/2019/1217/Could-supervised-injection-sites-save-lives
