Supervised injection sites are only the first step
By medicinehatnews on February 19, 2019.
No one is denying that Medicine Hat has a drug problem. We all agree that there needs to be greater efforts to fund treatment programs. Meanwhile, drug users are dying. The proposed supervised drug consumption site for our city is specifically designed to curtail overdose deaths, the proliferation of drug houses throughout our city, and slow used needle pollution. Take time to learn the layers of services proposed for this facility! Drug treatment options and counselling are integral to its services, together with first responder medical care. All this is still only part of a solution. Europe has found better ways to reduce drug trafficking, treat addictions and provide safe drugs for addicts. The first step is to treat addiction as a public health issue, not willful social depravity. In Susana Ferreria’s article, ”Portugal’s radical drugs policy is working. Why hasn’t the world copied it?” (The Guardian, 14 Feb. 2019) she notes that, while Portugal was first to provide drug consumption facilities, Denmark and France have followed. In some Portuguese clinics methadone is provided as an addiction treatment. This avoids the dangers inherent in street drugs. Nathan Kuik (”Denmark’s Harm Reduction Approach to Addiction is Working” 06/02/16) points to such progressive Danish measures as a drug users’ union, clean needle handouts (not just exchanges) and heroin clinics where individuals can receive a daily dose of injected heroin. Addicts receiving this treatment can even lead productive work lives! In recent times Switzerland has actually moved to prescription heroin for addicts. That nation’s response to a heroin epidemic 25 years ago was to make methadone treatment freely available to addicts with the same productive work life results (Stefanie Knoll, “The US can learn a lot from Zurich” Global Post, 12 February 2016). Think of the effect this has on criminal activity! The time for talk is over MP Motz. This is a federal health prerogative!. And isn’t it ironic that local and federal Conservatives support greater “consultation” on our location issue while arguing for an end to consultation and more action on pipelines. Will more consultation change minds? The resounding answer was “No!” Les PearsonMedicine Hat 10
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