Safe Injection Sites Essay
Since the mid 1900’s, heroin has been an epidemic in the United States. Heroin overdoses are one of the leading causes of deaths among all narcotics, and in 2003, people in Vancouver, Canada decided to try and make a difference. A safe heroin injection site is “a legally sanctioned medically supervised facility designed to reduce nuisance from public drug use and provide a hygienic and stress free environment in which individuals are able to consume illicit drugs intravenously” (“Supervised Injection Site” 1). One of these sites was installed in Vancouver and the amount of heroin involved deaths has gone down immensely. Safe injection sites could potentially lower the amount of annual heroin involved overdoses and deaths in Washington state due to on site medical supervision, providing clean needles to reduce the
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By giving people a clean and safe place to inject, safe injection sites eliminate public nuisance. A client survey in Sydney showed that “public injecting (defined as injecting in a street, park, public toilet or car)... was reported as the main alternative to injecting at the MSIC by 78% of clients” (Supervised Injection Site 6). This means that around 78% of the people who go to safe injection sites would inject in public if need be, and by implementing these sites around Seattle, we would be giving addicts a place to inject and to keep them out of the public. Safe injection sites would also lower the amount of publicly disposed syringes which would even further lower the amount of blood borne viruses. Safe injection sites in Australia have reportedly “Reduced the number of publicly discarded needles and syringes in the Kings Cross area by approximately half” (Druginfo 2). This is very important because people that aren’t even addicted to heroin don’t have to worry as much about contracting a disease from an improperly disposed heroin
By giving people a clean and safe place to inject, safe injection sites eliminate public nuisance. A client survey in Sydney showed that “public injecting (defined as injecting in a street, park, public toilet or car)... was reported as the main alternative to injecting at the MSIC by 78% of clients” (Supervised Injection Site 6). This means that around 78% of the people who go to safe injection sites would inject in public if need be, and by implementing these sites around Seattle, we would be giving addicts a place to inject and to keep them out of the public. Safe injection sites would also lower the amount of publicly disposed syringes which would even further lower the amount of blood borne viruses. Safe injection sites in Australia have reportedly “Reduced the number of publicly discarded needles and syringes in the Kings Cross area by approximately half” (Druginfo 2). This is very important because people that aren’t even addicted to heroin don’t have to worry as much about contracting a disease from an improperly disposed heroin