Insite: Vancouver's safe injection site

[YmirGF]

Insite is the first legal supervised safe injection site in North America, located at 139 East Hastings Street, in the Downtown Eastside neighbourhood of Vancouver, British Columbia. The site provides a clean, safe location for injection drug use, primarily heroin, cocaine, and morphine. Medical staff are present to provide addiction treatment, mental health assistance, and first aid in the event of an overdose or wound. Over a two year period ending March 31, 2006, the site recorded an average of 607 visits per day and 453 overdoses total, with none resulting in a fatality. Health Canada has provided $500,000 per year to operate the site, and the BC Ministry of Health contributed $1,200,000 to renovate the site and cover operating costs.

I am curious how others view this type of "support structure" for addicts. The Harper government recently kicked in funding for another year and is still not convinced that it is actually a viable idea. What do you think?

Wikipedia Insite link

Vancouver Coastal Health Insite link

McLean's Magazine Article

Canada Rejects Illegal Safe Injection Site

[Jeremy Mason]

I think this a way to reach out to drug abusers and at least try to provide the mental health options they were lacking in their lives.

[Shadow Wolf]

I think they are great ideas. It not only gives addicts a good place to seek help and not suffer horrible withdrawel symptoms, it also gives casual users a place to have paraphernalia that is clean, and not have the risks of blood bourne diseases.

[YmirGF]

Well, so far, it would appear that this is a topic of little concern to most people. I find that interesting in and of itself.

[Kungfuzed]

I've never heard of this, but it sounds like a good idea. I think overdoses can be avoided by having medical personel administer the drugs. Do they buy the drugs there too or is it BYOD? I can think of liability issues if a nurse injects bad drugs into a patient. The drugs would have to be supplied by the clinic to insure safety and quality if they were to be administered by the nurses.

[Shadow Wolf]

I just done the math, given the number of people who have shot up, and the number of overdoses, it's less than 2% of people over dosing. That says alot about these places, considering overdoses can be easily achieved.

[YmirGF]

Originally Posted by Luke Wolf

I just done the math, given the number of people who have shot up, and the number of overdoses, it's less than 2% of people over dosing. That says alot about these places, considering overdoses can be easily achieved.

Is it that big a deal if a drug addict over-doses? In some ways, you could say we are only prolonging their suffering.

[Jeremy Mason]

Originally Posted by YmirGF

Is is that big a deal if a drug addict over-doses? In some ways, you could say we are only prolonging their suffering.

This reminded me of the movie Traffic when the Mexican General responds to the question, "What rehab services are in place in Mexico?" The General says, "It's easy, the drug users overdose and there's one less problem."