San Francisco considers "injection" rooms for herion addicts

[KeithPA]

San Francisco considers injection room
By LISA LEFF
Associated Press Writer

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 four-year-old Vancouver site where an estimated 700 intravenous 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.

Organizers of the daylong forum, which also included a coalition of nonprofit health and social-service groups, acknowledge that it could take years to get an injection center up and running. Along with legal hurdles at the state and federal level, such an effort would be almost sure to face political opposition.

Bertha Madras, deputy director of demand reduction for the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, called San Francisco's consideration of such a facility "disconcerting" and "poor public policy."

"The underlying philosophy is, 'We accept drug addiction, we accept the state of affairs as acceptable,'" Madras said. "This is a form of giving up."

Sixty-five similar facilities exist in 27 cities in eight countries, but no other U.S. cities have considered creating one, according to Hilary McQuie, Western director for the Harm Reduction Coalition, a nonprofit that promotes alternative drug treatment methods.

"If it happens anywhere in the U.S., it will most likely start in San Francisco," McQuie said. "It really just depends on if there is a political will here. How long it takes for that political will to develop is the main factor."

Drug overdoses represented about one of every seven emergency calls handled by city paramedics between July 2006 and July 2007, according to San Francisco Fire Department Capt. Niels Tangherlini. At the same time, the number of deaths linked to overdoses has declined from a high of about 160 in 1995 to 40 in 2004, he said.

Colfax estimated that there are between 11,000 and 15,000 intravenous drug users in San Francisco, most of them homeless men. Like many large U.S. cities, the city operates a clean-needle exchange program to reduce HIV and hepatitis C infections.

Advocates plan to work on building community support for a safe-injection center, including backing from Mayor Gavin Newsom and the Board of Supervisors.

The mayor's spokesman, Nathan Ballard, said Thursday that although he does not want to discourage debate, he "is not inclined to support this program because, quite frankly, it may create more problems than it supposedly addresses."

In Switzerland, Spain and other European countries with such programs, the sites have been placed in existing public health clinics and created as stand-alone centers, said Andrew Reynolds, a program coordinator with San Francisco's city-run sexually transmitted diseases clinic.

Possible locations for opening one in the city include homeless shelters, AIDS clinics or drug treatment centers, he said.

"They aren't these hedonistic dens of iniquity," Reynolds said. "There is no buying or selling of drugs on the premises. Staff do not assist in injections."

While it's too early to tell what the room in San Francisco would look like, Vancouver's InSite program is on the upper floor of a low-rise building in a downtown neighborhood where drug users shoot up in the open.

http://www.kansascity.com/449/story/323048.html

Oh, San Fancisco

[XD45]

anyone know the drug overdose deaths compared to the gun deaths? I'm at work so I can't spend an hour searching but I've got a helluva good feeling those gun deaths are gonna be a tad lower, yet its ok for them to do that there....

freakin hippies

[mjd932]

Aren't they do for another earthquake or something?

[KeithPA]

We can only hope for:

[theshadow]

And to reduce sexually transmitted disease from pedophilia, we;ll open a love in room, where the participants can get free condoms and screening. We won't provide the children, but any you pick up illegally, we won't talk about.......



SHESH, if they are REALLY serious about this, yea we're opening shoot up rooms, here's the address, show up, and it's a detox center. makes more sense, isn't illegal, AND would fix a majority of the problem, those who can't do detox, can do time. And before you call me hypocrite, I'm once again saying apply existing laws, don't like 'em then work to change 'em.

[LorDiego01]

This is such a fantastic idea, on the basis alone to reduce HIV, HEP and other nasties that are transferable through injection.

[LittleRedToyota]

a person cannot be more adamantly opposed to the war on drugs than i am. if adults want to shoot themselves full of heroin, that's no business of the state.

however, no government in the U.S. should be paying for these rooms. no tax dollars should be used for this. if private organizations want to set up such places, i think it is a great idea, but this is not supposed to be a socialist country, and the government should not be paying for this.

there should be no public funding for this program, but the DEA should not exist either.

[LorDiego01]

a person cannot be more adamantly opposed to the war on drugs than i am. if adults want to shoot themselves full of heroin, that's no business of the state.

however, no government in the U.S. should be paying for these rooms. no tax dollars should be used for this. if private organizations want to set up such places, i think it is a great idea, but this is not supposed to be a socialist country, and the government should not be paying for this.

there should be no public funding for this program, but the DEA should not exist either.

I agree 100% with what you said, and then add another 20% for good measure.

However, this is a good starting point, because the state won't be putting these people in jail from the get go. Even knowing they are breaking the law and using illegal substances.

A step in the right directions.

[theshadow]

a person cannot be more adamantly opposed to the war on drugs than i am. if adults want to shoot themselves full of heroin, that's no business of the state.

however, no government in the U.S. should be paying for these rooms. no tax dollars should be used for this. if private organizations want to set up such places, i think it is a great idea, but this is not supposed to be a socialist country, and the government should not be paying for this.

there should be no public funding for this program, but the DEA should not exist either.

FWIW, I agree with you. Drugs should be treated like alcohol. But since that's currently not the law of the land, No City or local government should be acting in a manner that encourages and supports illegal activity. Much like individuals, they can not pick and choose the laws they prefer to obey, and those they won't. We are either a nation of laws or we're not. If we're not then S.F. has no complaints when I ignore the laws I don't like, such as their ban on hand guns and assault weapons, while in their city. City Counsel can not have it both ways, if they want the citizens to respect laws they make, they must respect the citizens AND the state/ national laws, otherwise they are inviting anarchy.

[theshadow]

A step in the right directions.

Sorry disagree with you there, this is a step in the WRONG direction as it further encourages illegal activity. They don't like the law, they can do like we do and work to have it changed. They really want to help prevent these health concerns, they'd address the root cause, in a legal responsible manner. Detox centers Will help the "Poor unfortunates" who have an addiction issue. Break the addiction, and they're not going to spread the crud any further, since they are no longer using.

You don't get to pick and choose the laws you will obey, you are either for law and order, or for anarchy. Granted if we were still under our constitution, this wouldn't be an issue, but since there are laws, we DO have to obey them, like it or not. If not liking it, work to change it, not violate it.