A Number Of Public Health And Safety Concerns Arise From Injection Drug Use

On the other hand, people who are against of needle exchange programs claim that the needle exchange programs don’t save lives but instead it can cause drug-related deaths. Even though NEPs help reduce the transmission of HIV and other diseases, they still encourage people to use more drugs, which could lead to death. Addicts are prone to death, perhaps not from HIV, but from overdosed, collapsed veins, poisoned dope, or the violence and criminality that go along with the illicit drug trade. According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), there are more than 33,000 people who died from drug overdose in 2005. As a result, drug overdose become the second

Supervised consumption sites are seen as an effective means of reducing harm associated with illicit opioid consumption. Generally these are sites where drug users can inject or consume drugs under the observation of trained personal. The first of such consumption sites in Canada “Insite” was established in Vancouver in 2003. So far there has not been a single reported case of overdose fatality at the site. The success of Insite as a harm reduction approach has encouraged jurisdictions across Canada to adopt or contemplate similar systems. In 2017, the federal government passed Bill C-37 with the aim of streamlining the application process for communities who wish to operate supervised consumption sites. In Alberta, there are five proposed supervised injection sites, four in Edmonton and another in Calgary.

An increase in drug use, specifically opiates, has overwhelmed the United States. This behavior has led to a rise in the transmission of HIV/Hepatitis C which would be otherwise preventable. The needle exchange programs in Moorhead, Milwaukee, and Scott County are working to lower the transmission rate and increase participation in treatment programs.

Vancouver Injection Drug User Study (VIDUS) is a project that gives a prospective study and has over 1500 IDU 's enlisted to assist since 1996 and gathers data on drug use, health, sexual activity, etc. Some of the topics discussed included: prison culture, availability and price of drugs and equipment, drug use, VIDUS shows that the risk of HIV infection indicated that incarcerated injection drug users were associated with a greater risk of 2.7 times (Small, Kain, Laliberte, Schechter, O 'Shaughnessy & Spittal, 2005).

As the number of intravenous drug users continues to rise, so does the risk of dangerous and potentially fatal complications that are associated with illicit drug use. In this population, death rates are higher due to overdose, AIDs-related mortality, and other blood-borne viruses (Mathers et al., 2013). Mortality rates remain high even though precautions have been taken to reduce them. According to Lavender & McCarron (2013), “Mortality in injecting drug users is up to 22 times higher than for the age-adjusted population, despite increased provision of needle and syringe programs, reduced needle and syringe sharing, and higher uptake of hepatitis B vaccination” (p. 511).

Although these clients will still be abusing illegal substances, Sheon (2004) indicated that any reduction of harm is a step in the right direction, and the amount of success is measured by the client’s quality of life and well-being (as cited in Brown et al., 2005). “Harm reduction is about being respectful in somebody else’s world” (Georgina Perry, Service manager and co-author, England as cited in Cusick et al., 2010). By not respecting somebody else’s choices, the clients feel they must lie about their unhealthy lifestyles, which prevents the clients from getting assistance because they were trying to protect themselves from the real situation (Georgina Perry, Service manager and co-author, England as cited in Cusick et al., 2010). A way to reduce the harm from illegal substance abuse is clean needle exchange, and teaching clients how to properly inject themselves (Brown et al., 2005). The needle exchange is a program where clients exchange their used needles for clean ones, which helps reduce the spread of diseases such as HIV/AIDS (Brown et al., 2005). With continuation of these programs the harm from abusing illegal substances is reduced and the spread of life threatening diseases, such as HIV,

Safe injection sites are places where chronic users of drugs such as morphine, cocaine, and heroin can go to inject drugs in a safe and sanitary environment. The site itself does not supply the drugs, but offers addiction and mental health treatment, first aid in case of overdose or injury, and sanitary means to inject drugs safely. These sites apply what is known as the harm reduction model. In her

A safe injection site (SIS) has been placed in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside where drug use is a challenging problem. The program is a vital piece of the cities known harm reduction approach to its serious problems with homelessness, drugs, crime and AIDS. Canada has drastically shifted its method. Going from punishing drug users to establishing the plan of harm reduction. Since 2003 when the supervised SIS opened, it has presented a safe health-focused center where drug users have access to inject illegal drugs using sterile equipment in a clean environment under the supervision of medically trained professionals. Although there are some serious concerns about the

Supervised injection sites are clean, safe and medically supervised facilities where users can inject intravenous illegal substances. These facilities are legally sanctioned and are part of a harm reduction approach towards drug use problems. Safe injection sites have been implemented in Australia, various European countries including, Germany, the Netherlands, and Switzerland, as well as in Canada. Safe injection sites have been successful in every country in which they operate.

There are many ways in which people who are addicted to intravenous drugs are perceived by our society. People sometimes believe the addicted person is to blame for their circumstance and substance dependence and some feel serious drug addicts are a “lost cause” due to a lack of values or flawed character. “Persons who struggle with addictions often are depicted as criminals or prostitutes, weak, lazy and morally corrupt” (Bartlett, R., Brown, L., Shattell, M., Wright, T., Lewallen, L. (2013). These stereotypes paint people with addiction negatively; a percentage of people who live with serious addiction are capable of recovery with the right attitude, support and healthcare. Street level healthcare services such as; safe injection sites, provide accessable resources at street level for people to make the choice to live healthier lifestyles. Govement funding and support is needed to make these projects possible to improve the health of Canadians. Safe injection sites are proven to be positive contributions to communities, save lives, reduce harm and open doors towards recovery for people from the grip of addiction.

Harm reduction can be defined as an approach that aims to reduce the consequences of high risk behaviours such as injection drug use on the individual and on society as a whole. Harm reduction programs provide injection drug users with access to a clean injection environment, sterile injections, drug-preparation equipment and safe disposal of contaminated material at the time of injection. Staff members in harm reduction facilities provide health teaching, anonymous HIV testing, information on addiction treatment, condoms and assist in connecting clients to social and health services (Semaan et al., 2011; Ball, 2007). Although, the benefits of harm reduction are evident through reduction of accidental drug overdose and prevention of

Insite provides the community members with a safe place to inject their drug. They provide people with injection equipment’s such as syringes, cookers, filters, water, etc (Insite Supervised Injection, Services section, 2011, para. 3). At the site, there are many trained nurses to help facilitate the process of injection into the patient. “More than 400 overdoses have occurred at the facility, but nobody has ever died there from one” (Geddes, 2010, para. 7). With that being said, over 1,200 people died between 1990 and 200 because of

Even though there are already harsh penalties toward those who contain and use illicit drugs, it would not be possible to give them these sentences without their presence. Many legal drugs such as alcohol and tobacco have relatively dangerous affects that could lead to death in the same ways illegal substances can, which brings upon the question of why an individual’s well-being would ever be put before the law. INSITE has proven to the world that providing a secure and reliable facility for addicts to inject drugs will not only prevent them from harm and provide safety for the public, but it will also encourage users to seek recovery. Research shows that associations with the safe-injection site has caused a 30 percent increase in rehabilitation programs, and an estimate of $14 million in savings and 1000 HIV preventions through the course of 10 years (Mosher, 2011: 377). With the significant amount of evidence that INSITE has positively impacted toward society and its members, there is no reason not to launch additional safe-injection sites in areas where they are

This case study is based on results obtained from the public injecting site in the urban location of Sydney’s Kings Cross between 1998 and 2010. In exposing and analysing the history behind the initiative of the NSW Governments harm minimisation program of ‘Medically Supervised Injecting Centres’ (MSIC). This paper offers a snapshot into the public policy and responses associated with public injecting and metanarrative directions of the program management and evaluation methods that were applied to how this program unfolded.

The present scenario of drug abuse in NE India is very alarming as the future of the states is in ruin. Three simultaneous actions are recommended to resolve the problem. These are checking the trans-border smuggling of drugs, tackling the existing drug users and deterring fresh case. These can be implemented through strict vigil, Systematic De-addiction and Rehabilitation Programme (SDRP) and by generating scope for healthy livelihood.