This is a philosophical contest about how Americans should confront a social crisis. Injection sites normalize intravenous drug abuse, encourage a horrible addiction, and let down the people who suffer from it. Promoters of these sites offer addicts little but failure — medical safety at the time of injection but, overall, mere complicity in a nightmarish cycle of addiction leading to death.
Perhaps not when the addict shoots up under the careful eye of a medical professional, but one of the hundreds of other times she shoots up somewhere else. I am unwilling to declare defeat in the battle to reduce opioid abuse, especially when the creativity and hard work of state and federal authorities is bearing fruit. Overdose deaths are leveling off or declining in areas hardest hit by the crisis : New Hampshire may post its first decline in six years, echoing declines in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Ohio, and Kentucky.
There is, of course, more to do; in Massachusetts, for example, overdoses still exceed the national average. Site users also have access to wound care, HIV education and referral to addiction treatment. Opponents say safe injection sites will encourage addiction and discourage treatment, despite mounting evidence to the contrary. In Seattle and King County, Washington, opponents mobilized a ballot initiative against the creation of safe consumption facilities that was eventually struck down by a federal judge.
The first supervised consumption facility opened in in Switzerland and, today, some sites operate in 66 cities across Europe and Australia. Insite, the first safe injection site in North America, opened in Vancouver in The Conservatives should answer as to why they insist on being against the evidence," Eleanore Catenaro said. In Calgary, crime rates in the downtown Beltline district have skyrocketed since the Safeworks Harm Reduction Program opened in April Violence in the area is up nearly 50 per cent; vehicle crime has increased 63 per cent.
The number of break-and-enters has jumped by more than 60 per cent and the total number of calls to police was up 36 per cent in compared with the previous year, according to police data. Another injection site, this one near Toronto's Yonge-Dundas entertainment district, has been the source of much frustration for some local business owners and officials from neighbouring Ryerson University. In some suburbs like Markham, just north of Toronto, where Scheer campaigned Monday, there have been well-organized campaigns against these sites for fear of bringing more crime to an area that has already seen a fair amount of drug-related crimes like grow ops and home-based drug labs.
Conservative MP Bob Saroya, who won his Markham-Unionville seat in the last election despite a Liberal wave, has been at the forefront of opposition to an injection site, accusing his city's mayor of being a Liberal lackey intent on forcing a site on the people of Markham. In London, Ont. The proposal has caused concern among low-income residents who aren't on drugs, TVO has reported.
A variety of newsletters you'll love, delivered straight to you. Pseudonyms will no longer be permitted. All rights reserved.
Growing use of illegal, dangerous and addictive drugs continues to challenge health care and criminal justice systems across Canada. Advocates for the facility point to its high utilization rate and reduction of the overdose mortality as proof of its effectiveness. Detractors point to the open drug use in the adjacent streets, the filth, offensive graffiti and squalor proximal to the facility, and the visibly negative impact on the community. The EPS seeks a balance between the needs of those with addictions to illegal drugs and the rights of the larger community to live in a safe and crime free environment.
0コメント