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The Battle over Safe Injection Sites

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Insite: The Battle over Supervised Injection Sites

In the 1990’s there was an epidemic of HIV outbreaks in the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver. Injection drug users were found to be the leading cause of this, and a public health emergency was declared (Fafard, 2012). The “mortality and morbidity” resulting from this increasing injection drug use became a major political issue. This resulted in the adoption of harm reduction by the government as one of their four pillars of their drug strategy (Fafard, 2012). Harm reduction “is a set of practical strategies and ideas aimed at reducing negative consequences associated with drug use” (Boyd, 2013). In September 2003 Insite, North Americas first harm reduction supervised injection site, …show more content…

There was also no increase of users relapsing into injection drug use, nor did it negatively influence those seeking to stop drug use (Kerr et al., 2006). The research shows that Insite has not promoted increased illicit drug injection, but rather it has attracted individuals with histories of injection drug use.
Another claim put forth by the Conservatives is that SISs are harmful to communities. They believe SISs create public nuisances, and threaten public safety (Broadhead, Kerr & Alice, 2002). Research on the other hand argues that SISs can address issues related to public. Since Insite opened the public has noticed less public injections, less syringe droppage, and less complaints about drug user nuisances (Potier et al., 2014). It also cleans up public environment such as streets and alleyways. Drug use is still an illicit activity and it takes place in unsterile environments such as behind dumpsters and shooting galleries. SISs provide sterile environments for users and are a lot safer than shooting up in the streets. This leads to less public injection and a better community environment (Potier et al., 2014). Local police data was also evaluated and there has been no increase in crime, violence, or drug trafficking around Insite. There were no significant statistical changes in rates of drug trafficking. There were 124 incidents in the year before and 116 incidents after. There were 147

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