Shooting heroin under a nurse's supervision

[kittyroze]

Yeup, you heard me.


City health officials took steps Thursday toward opening the nation’s first legal safe-injection room, where addicts could shoot up heroin, cocaine and other drugs under the supervision of nurses.

Hoping to reduce San Francisco’s high rate of fatal drug overdoses, the public health department co-sponsored a symposium on the only such facility in North America, a 4-year-old Vancouver site where an estimated 700 users a day self-administer narcotics under the supervision of nurses.

“Having the conversation today will help us figure out whether this is a way to reduce the harms and improve the health of our community,” said Grant Colfax, director of HIV prevention for the San Francisco Department of Public Health.

Link here (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21367579/wid/11915773?gt1=10514)
It's an interesting thing to consider, particularly because I feel that regulating drug use would do so much to help the addicts stay safe. It's stupid of them to have started doing the drugs in the first place, but I can't really blame someone for wanting to escape from the world. I completely identify with the desire to just feel numbness as opposed to constant emotional pain.


Thoughts?

[trekbugging]

I agree it's a problem that will not go away--it's like the idiots who think telling kids not to have sex will keep them from having kids and getting STD'd

but i also think if someone goes there they must get involved with some kind of therapy-- as in shoot up here but we also want to help you get over your addiction

[James]

I say make the therapy available but dont force them into it, you dont want people to avoid the place because they don't want to take any harassment from the workers. Another thing they could offer is free access to prescription drugs that will help them kick their addiction.

[Bones]

Prescription drugs aren't a cure. It's just trading one addiction for another addiction. My step brother is a heroin addict. He doesn't do heroin anymore cause he's addicted to methadone. It more addictive than the heroin and even worse for his health.
I used to shoot up coke. You know what made me quit? ALMOST DIEING!!! There is nothing you can do to help a junkie until they really want to quit.
All this program is going to accomplish is that it is going to enable junkies.

[James]

No, it will keep kids in parks from finding used needles and playing lawn darts with them. It will also help stop junkies from sharing needles and giving eachother diseases like hepatitis and aids and spreading it to non junkies by way of sexual intercourse. They dont supply the drugs, so these people are allready going to shoot up anyways. So you might as well give them clean needles to do it with and a place away from little kids to do it in.

[Bones]

Bullshit. They are going to continue doing it away from the place no matter what. Do you honestly think that they are going to go to that place every time they want to fix? They aren't. I know the junkie mentality cause I have one.

[James]

Well, I guess we'll have to see what effect it has on the surrounding area before we jump to the conclusion that it wont work. Now I could see a reason for opposing a nationwide plan to have these things on every block without even trying them out in small areas first. But these are just pilot projects, and most of the ones ive heard of in Canada so far have been a triumph, they made notes there "huge success". It was hard for them to overstate their satisfaction.