Canada has always prided itself on being a leader in progressive social policy, but it’s lagging dangerously behind when it comes to managing drug addiction and it couldn’t be more obvious than in the nation’s capital.
This summer, two focus groups were run in Ottawa to determine the feasibility of establishing a safe injection site or sites, due to the recent explosion of crack use as well as the number of HIV and hepatitis C cases.
Although results aren’t expected until next year, it seems unlikely that the same city council that scrapped the crack kit program would approve a safe injection site.
It’s unfortunate, since Ottawa has some of the highest HIV and hepatitis C rates in the country. According to a 2007 city report, 76 per cent of drug users have hepatitis C and 21 per cent HIV, leading some community health scientists to call it an “epidemic.”
Safe injection sites don’t encourage drug use, as some opponents to them suggest. They’re a public health measure aimed at helping drug addicts overcome their addiction one step at a time.
In March, the World Health Organization endorsed sites like in Vancouver’s lower eastside, as means of curtailing the spread of HIV among drug users.
When Vancouver’s program called Insite opened in 2003 under a legal exemption, a condition was that a study be conducted on its impacts.
Insite was found to have had a positive effect on the community.
It emphasized that there had been a decline in the number of HIV and hepatitis C cases and the number of overdose deaths.
Although the city of Ottawa is already providing tools to inject drugs, they’re only going halfway.
In filthy alleys and crack houses there is no moderating how much a user injects or how many veins the city-distributed needle penetrates.
A safe injection site would improve the needle distribution program, by supervising how a needle is used and discarded and would bring users into contact with health services he or she wouldn’t normally have access to.
At the Vancouver site, users are connected with health care services – from care for diseases and infections, to addiction counselling and treatment on a regular basis.
In dollars and cents, the success of Insite translates to a foreseeable $14 million in savings for British Columbia’s health care system in a 10-year period, according to a study published by the Ontario HIV Treatment Network.
The Vancouver facility has not only reduced the level of disease in the community, but has also helped addicts reclaim their lives.
The worst thing you can do is force someone into treatment- it’s a recipe for relapse.
Allowing users to shoot up under supervision buys them the time to decide for themselves when they are ready to seek treatment.
In Vancouver, the treatment facilities operate in the same building as Insite. This eases the transition to recovery when the user decides the time is right.
Research conducted at Insite showed that 1 in 5 people who used the injection facilities entered a detox program.
Safe injection sites aren’t shooting galleries – they’re a lifeline. Vancouver’s program sends the message that a drug addict’s life is worth saving, and it’s a message Ottawa should echo.