Drug Addiction and San Francisco, California Health Department

The San Francisco Public Health Department held a symposium this October to discuss safe injection facilities. Though not likely to happen anytime soon in California; there are currently 27 cities in eight countries that have been using this approach in an attempt to curb drug addiction.

What's a safe injection facility?

It's a clinically supervised facility, where addicts can go to receive clean needles and equipment and then inject themselves with drugs. The idea is to provide a safe place for addicts to go so as to reduce the number of deaths related to overdose and inhibit the spread of diseases such as HIV and Hepatitis C. Additionally, the facility is staffed with alcohol and drug counselors to provide help and information regarding drug use for those wishing to end addiction and get into a good drug rehab program.

Insite, a facility which has been in operation since September of 2003 is located in Vancouver, BC. The site was opened in the Downtown Eastside which has the heaviest concentration of injection users in the city. One in every three injection users in BC lives in this area and of that amount nine in ten have Hepatitis C and three in ten are HIV positive.

With numbers like that it makes sense that the city would wish to do something, almost anything to combat drug use and the other health consequences that come with it.

But is it really the correct thing to do?

Since inception, the facility has had more than 7,000 visits. Each day approximately 600 injections are supervised, effectively helping to removing individuals from shooting up on the street or in back alleys.

While overdoses are common at the site, almost five hundred over the last two years, the staff is able to manage the majority and none have resulted in fatality. Studies have shown those addicts using the facility are 70 percent less likely to share syringes than injection drug users who don't use the facility thus reducing the possible spread of diseases. Another plus side is that more than 800 individuals were referred to addiction counseling in the last year and counseled on getting into a drug rehab program.

The opening of the facility has shown no increase in drug patterns or crimes related to drug use in the community. When you look at some of the results that have been achieved one can not dispute that the facility and the people working in them have done good things. It's no easy task to help an individual who's strung out on drugs.

If the intent were only to remove the element from our immediate environment, save lives, and reduce transmission of disease then the program is a smashing success.

But if we realize that all of those problems exist only because people use drugs, wouldn't we better off attacking the source of the problem rather than dealing with its secondary repercussions?

What if the same amount of money and energy was spent on drug education and drug rehab program? Then we could start ending the drug addiction problem.

Hopefully those symposium attendants in California will be asking the same questions. California could use more programs that helped get people into drug rehab. If you or someone you know needs assistance with a drug addiction problem get help today by contacting a counselor at drug rehab referral.