Holistic Health
Supervised injection sites can reduce harm from drug use
While not a panacea , they should be one component of a comprehensive strategy against drug abuse and death
Illegal drug use is responsible for thousands of deaths every year , while ravaging the lives of many others by exposing them to chronic infections like hepatitis and HIV in almost every corner of the world . While the fight against drug addiction may seem futile , supervised injection sites can contribute to making drug use safer by reducing both overdose and infectious disease risks in people who use illegal substances .
The World Health Organization says half a million deaths are caused by drug use every year , with 30 percent due to overdose . Supervised injection sites are places where people can use their own drugs safely under the supervision of trained personnel who can provide immediate life-saving care in case of an overdose as well as sterile needles and injection equipment to prevent the spread of chronic diseases like hepatitis C and HIV�AIDS . These are two lifethreatening conditions that can transmit through contaminated blood in needles used by multiple people .
One example is Insite , a supervised injection facility in Canada that carried out 6,440 overdose interventions without any deaths from its inception in 2003 to 2019 , according to Vancouver Coastal Health , the regional health authority . In a similar vein , a 2010 analysis estimated that Insite prevented 35 new cases of HIV and almost three deaths each year .
People in overdose caused by opioids like heroin can often be saved by administering the drug naloxone that reverses the effects of an opioid overdose . But access to naloxone is still limited in many countries , even in healthcare settings , according to the WHO .
Despite research backing up the positive results observed at Insite , some critics are unconvinced supervised injection sites are a good strategy against drug abuse .
“ Are we actually saving lives ?” asked Dr David Murray , co-director of the Center for Substance Abuse Policy Research at the Hudson Institute in the US , in MedPage Today . He argued that people often injected drugs multiple times a day in several locations , meaning that saving them once didn ’ t necessarily ensure they had been saved .
And while simply offering a safe place to inject drugs may not be a comprehensive strategy against drug abuse , it can still make a difference by reducing the chances of death by overdose and nudging some people who use drugs to start a rehab programme . Insite , for example , has a detox facility that was visited by 443 people in 2017 .
“ Prevention sites are certainly not the long-term answer to this public health emergency , but when it comes to saving lives , there is no doubt they make a meaningful impact ,” Lee Lax , the public engagement chair for Vancouver Fire Fighters , wrote in the Boston Globe .
“ It takes true leadership to incorporate safe , supervised environments into a comprehensive treatment plan for those addicted to opioids . To the uninformed , safe injection sites may appear to encourage drug use . In Vancouver , we ’ ve proved that supervised injection sites save lives . As firefighters , that ’ s what we care about most .”
“ Prevention sites are certainly not the long-term answer to this public health emergency , but when it comes to saving lives , there is no doubt they make a meaningful impact
18 ISSUE 1 | 2023 GlobalHealthAsiaPacific . com