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Safe injection sites in San Francisco could be first in the US

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Re: Safe injection sites in San Francisco could be first in the US

#11

Post by steve_adams_86 »

ggg9990 wrote: post #8
AnabeeKnox wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It might be a hard sell to use Vancouver as a model. It has an area which is perhaps the most public display of social decay I've ever encounted in a first-world city, principally from drug abuse.

As someone with no stake in this, I would rather have all of that decay in one place I can avoid rather than strewn about my city.

This isn't a sustainable solution to that problem. In Vancouver, rapid gentrification is simply pushing these people around once again anyway. We need long term solutions. Social nets which work to help these people get back on track, prevent people from getting on that track, and soften the blow of hitting rock bottom. I have a strong sense that supporting mental health issues more effectively is at the heart of this.

Re: Safe injection sites in San Francisco could be first in the US

#13

Post by tcj_phx »

In days gone by, heroin addicts knew how much heroin they needed to 'stay well'.

A major factor in the escalation of deaths in the modern era is the contamination of the street pharmacy's heroin supply with more potent synthetic opioids (fentanyl, etc).

Overdoses happen when street drugs are more potent than the user expects, or when the user's tolerance has changed. Two factors in my girlfriend's OD were having been sober for 5 months and having been made addicted to clonazepam (a benzodiazepine that increases the potency of opiates - she'd only wanted this 'as needed', but the professionals at the hospitalization preceeding her OD thought she needed to take the full dose every day). That batch of heroin could also have been contaminated...

A clean supply of heroin would be quite helpful in preventing people from killing themselves while self-medicating. Until the politicians find courage to acknowledge that it was a mistake to trust organized crime to control the supply of addictive substances, at least 'safe injection sites' is an intervention that can actually prevent people from causing their own premature expiration.

Re: Safe injection sites in San Francisco could be first in the US

#15

Post by zanedb »

Cofike wrote: post #9

The individuals who are using these drugs already use them openly in the street. I see them daily on my way to work as I work in a popular area for vagrants/homeless. If it prevents me from stepping on needles and seeing blood from people shooting up on the street, I am all for it. These individuals will use one way or another if they want to so giving them a place to do it safely off the street seems acceptable. Of…

Well of course people want to eliminate it, but how?

Is this not at least a step in the right direction?

Re: Safe injection sites in San Francisco could be first in the US

#16

Post by [deleted] »

zanedb wrote: post #15
Cofike wrote: post #9

The individuals who are using these drugs already use them openly in the street. I see them daily on my way to work as I work in a popular area for vagrants/homeless. If it prevents me from stepping on needles and seeing blood from people shooting up on the street, I am all for it. These individuals will use one way or another if they want to so giving them a place to do it safely off the street seems acceptable. Of…

Well of course people want to eliminate it, but how? Is this not at least a step in the right direction?

[deleted]

Re: Safe injection sites in San Francisco could be first in the US

#17

Post by jdavis703 »

formol wrote: post #3

The very lefty mayor of Paris launched one « safe site » in the city. Results : disneyland for drug dealers and addicts in the area, dead people (OD) in the street, noise, fights...

Don't we already have all of those problems though? Or is this saying this increased those issues? If so I'd love to see the data, maybe it can provide some lessons for SF as it experiments with this.

Re: Safe injection sites in San Francisco could be first in the US

#18

Post by zapita »

Andrex wrote: post #7
formol wrote: post #3

The very lefty mayor of Paris launched one « safe site » in the city. Results : disneyland for drug dealers and addicts in the area, dead people (OD) in the street, noise, fights...

Sources for this would be very helpful. Always interested in alternative viewpoints!

Here is a recent study of drug consumption room programs across Europe (including the one in Paris), and their impact so far. http://www.emcdda.europa.eu/topics/pods/drug-consumption-roo...

Their analysis seems pretty balanced, and seems to skew positive. It definitely contradicts the negative comment you're responding to.

Re: Safe injection sites in San Francisco could be first in the US

#19

Post by api_or_ipa »

formol wrote: post #3

The very lefty mayor of Paris launched one « safe site » in the city. Results : disneyland for drug dealers and addicts in the area, dead people (OD) in the street, noise, fights...

I don't know much about the site in Paris but I do have experience living nearby Vancouver's first of now two safe injection sites. In my experience what you describe did not happen in Vancouver. Safe injection sights save lives by providing a clean, safe place to minimize harm.

Re: Safe injection sites in San Francisco could be first in the US

#20

Post by j0rd »

AnabeeKnox wrote: post #6
Phanyxx wrote: post #5

Here in Vancouver the safe injection sites have saved countless lives and drastically lowered needle sharing. There's a big misconception that safe injection sites somehow promote drug use. They save lives and give people a legitimate pathway to get clean if they choose to. Do the right thing, SF!

It might be a hard sell to use Vancouver as a model. It has an area which is perhaps the most public display of social decay I've ever encounted in a first-world city, principally from drug abuse.

The DTES is a shit hole, but it was kind of engineered to be that way.

As for the safe injection site stuff, I lived and worked in the area around the time that place was opened.

It was a shit hole before it opened and continued to be so after it opened. I never went in the site, and never cared to. Nothing special around it. People shoot up in the streets all the time and I'd still be careful where you walk to not step on a needle and don't wear sandals ;)

But supposedly this: Rates of HIV infection dropped from 8.1 cases per 100 person-years in 1997 to 0.37 cases per 100 person-years by 2011. By 2015, the 40-block area surrounding the safe injection site had a 35% decline in overdose deaths.

The DTES in Van is a pretty interesting place. It's not as bad as it looks. I personally never had any problems in the area. But it's still a shit hole.

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