In response to the opioid epidemic, cities from New York City to Seattle are considering allowing spaces where people can inject heroin and use other drugs under supervision. The idea is that if people are going to use drugs anyway, there might as well be places where those drug users can be supervised in case something goes wrong. “After a rigorous review of similar efforts across the world, and after careful consideration of public health and safety expert views, we believe overdose prevention centers will save lives and get more New Yorkers into the treatment they need to beat this deadly addiction,” says New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio. A new study found that these places, known as supervised drug consumption sites, safe injection sites, and many other names, may not be so effective at preventing overdose deaths and other drug-related problems as once thought, reports Vox.com.
A review of research in the International Journal of Drug Policy finds that safe consumption sites appear to have only a small favorable relation to drug-related crimes but no significant effect on several other outcomes, including overdose mortality and syringe sharing. Keith Humphreys of Stanford University, who was not involved in the review, cites “the contrast between the claims that are being made and what the evidence actually says” and says the new review’s results “are fairly disappointing.” The review detected little to no effect from supervised consumption sites in the best studies the researchers could find. It concluded that only eight studies were rigorous and transparent enough to be included. With such a small pool of studies, it’s possible future research could produce different findings.
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http://www.cbc.ca/news2/interactives/portugal-heroin-decriminalization/
How Europe’s heroin capital solved its overdose crisis
What Canada can learn from Portugal about opioid addiction, rehab and recovery
—No “safe” injection sites
—Drugs decriminalized as in personal possession is now a civil violation
—Growing, pushing, selling, trafficking of drugs is still penalized harshly
—Mandatory drug rehab treating as an illness and health problem
From one of the most liberal news sources:
https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2018/8/22/17683364/safe-injection-sites-study
Safe injection sites were thought to reduce drug overdoses. The research isn’t so clear.
A new meta-analysis reviewed the evidence on safe injection sites. There’s bad news.
SISs are a bad idea. They perpetuate the misery of the addict by giving up on them and expect that there is no help for them except to die an eventual early death. The 100% “positive” studies for SISs are unscientific at best, self-serving at worse. They increase public overdoses, public deaths, public use, needle litter, homelessness, crime.
My arguments against SISs are in the comment section here. I also include more positive scenarios for user/addicts by experts in the field:
http://www.advertisernewssouth.com/article/20180530/NEWS01/180539989/Are-supervised-injection-sites-a-good-idea