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Jul 22, 06
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vancouver's safe injection site - insite
so, on september 12th (or around then) the 3 year experiment that is the north america's first safe injection site will be over and Harper's government has said that they're not really interested in renewing the project. which, i think, sucks ass.
in order for insite to stay open the government needs to approve an exemption by health canada to allow for users to use drugs in that facility without threat of being arrested. i've been following insite since it started up because i was really interested in the new program. there's been a bunch of studies done since it's opening and they are all pointing toward the success of insite in reducing HIV infections (as well as other infections), reducing the chance of overdose and stopping the chance of death by overdose. there have been a number of overdoses that happened at insite, none of them ended in death because of the nurse they always have on staff there. also, because of the medical attention they can administer on site, many times they didn't have to go to a hospital. it's also slowed the rate of HIV infection and Hepatitis C because they give clean needles. they offer counselling and information about detox programs as well. several hundred people a day visit the site. i really really really hope that Harper takes a closer look at this program and sees how successful it has been and how much it has achieved with helping our problem in the DTES. what are the alternatives? go back to a law-and-order situation where we are arrested drug addicts? we've already seen that doesn't work. while the safe injection site isn't a full answer to the problem there, it's part of the solution, i think. something we should develop further. what are your thoughts on this issue? 
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Jul 22, 06
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I really hope he cans it, quite frankly it's things that like that suck out the money from Canada, instead the should be investing in places that have programs for these people, to get them on their feet and eventually out back into the real world and people that can do something with themselves. Same with welfare... sorry but if I can go out and get a job, then so can anyone else. It's not that difficutl and the governmetn could provide centres where people can make up a resume and be helped in that way, not help them feed their addiction in a safe manner.
Regardless, there are going to be drugs users always, but I don't think have centres where they can do their drugs in a safe way is the best decision....
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Jul 22, 06
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we already have many detox programs in vancouver, lots of them free, but detox programs rarely provide a long term solution. most people relapse and head back into the world of drug use.
if we're talking money here, the tax payers money is also used to police drug users, provide health care when they overdose, and provide long term health care when they contract HIV, Hep C, or other diseases that are acquired through needle sharing. the safe injection site has helped lower all of these. like you said, there are always going to be drug users out there, and lumping them or forcing them into detox centres doesn't work. arresting them doesn't work. insite helps to lessen the impact of drug users on the rest of society, if you want to look at it that way, because if they are kept healthier then it is of less cost to us.
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Jul 22, 06
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if anyone has questions about operating costs, hours, what it does, etc... you can find all that information out here:
http://www.vch.ca/sis/faq.htm
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Jul 22, 06
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glad its going away, in my opinion the safe injection site shows that our society supports drug use, Money should be spent preventing people frombecoming drug users instead of focusing time on the hoes and junkies that have already gone to far.
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Jul 22, 06
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Jul 22, 06
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No it shows our society has a grasp on reality and is taking a harm prevention approach towards it. European citites have been doing this for years. As a resident of Vancouver, under the leadership of Larry Campbell I know me as well as a lot of the cities residents were glad to have someone in power who realized that there were problems in the area and it was time to take a proactive approach. It's one of the most innovative and helpful things to come into the area. The whole reason that junkies are shooting up in alleys with dirty needles and od'ing is because places fail to take that approach. People are going to do these drugs and I'm all for taking it out of the streets and alleyways. The 'hoes and junkies' that have gone too far are people too, btw.
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Jul 22, 06
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hoes and junkies that have gone too far are still people too, they are people dealing with addiction and they deserve to be treated with decency. not only do safe injection sites give an addict a SAFE place to inject it also keeps their used needles off of the street, out of the parks and most importantlly off of school grounds! these sites are not swanky lounges, they're simple settings. (ps - i hit reply before myra posted, we have the same opinion, i am not a copy-cat :P)
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Jul 22, 06
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It was definately a good decision in my view to bring harm reduction programs into Vancouver. I really hope that it continues so that we may also work towards additional methods to roll back drug addiction and it's impact on society.
Another good point to make is when drug users do drugs in the streets the stigma that it has could further perpetuate their addiction. When you recieve care and attention in a place like Insite you feel more like a person; possibly leading to the will to re-enter into society. Remember feeling outcasted and left behind on the streets is part of the pre-requisites for drug use. People don't wake up one day and say "hmm i think i want to be a heroin addict now that they have these new trendy safe-injection sites." Something seriously went wrong in their lives and they were around the wrong people at the wrong time. Drug addiction is the scourge of modern society. Further alienating these people through draconian conversative policy isn't the solution.
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Jul 22, 06
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Get rid of it. It's a bit shameless to have something like this in our society, it almost hails people to be public w/ their addiction(s) and really not solving anything. DT east side seems to get more crowded everyday. More of a crackdown on drug dealing and heavier penalties for drug trafficking should be implemented to clean up Vancouver streets, rather than having society foot the bill to give refuge to people with drug problems.
As for diseases, that is something WE ALL as human beings have a responsibility to control. We can catch Hep C and other diseases from sexual contact with someone. More awareness, and detox programs is where tax dollars should be going to. Last edited by C_squared; Jul 22, 06 at 12:01 PM.
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Jul 22, 06
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You don't solve any problems by making drugs more illegal. Dealers are still going to sell and junkies are still going to use. Prices will just go up and shit will be more underground. You'll get more crime and more violence. With that all said, i don't have any solutions. Downtown east side will be fucked for a long time.
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Jul 22, 06
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At first I wasn't all that entranced with the whole idea of an injection site,
but now I think it's a good idea. The Merchants association is thrilled. They say the number of stray needles littering the streets and back alleys has dropped dramatically.
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Jul 22, 06
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Jul 22, 06
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Even tho the conservative approach in dealing with this epidemic problem proves no real solution. whichever side of this topic you're on it's just a vicious circle jerk of right and wrong.
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Jul 22, 06
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I think its a terrible idea to take away the safe injection site, not only does it prevent overdoses and the spread of disease, but it also cleans up the streets and gives the homeless a better place to go then a crack den or an alleyway.
Damn, I just realized im repeating alot of the same points as some people above me... anyways, screw you Harper.
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Jul 22, 06
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the safe injection site actually has been a huge success - almost 20% of people going in there and using the facilities (in an effort to curb the spread of disease) are ending up voluntarily going into treatment. these centres are not in place to "hail people to be public w/ their addiction" - it's not like they hand out drugs. they hand out advice and aid, resulting in "More awareness, and detox programs" - which is what you want, right? and as a side note - crackdowns and heavier penalties don't solve anything - it just moves the problem elsewhere hence the movement from main & hastings to commercial drive things obviously need to be done to discourage people from involving themselves in this, but increased police presence and harsher penalties is not the answer IMO.
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Jul 22, 06
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Yeah....disadvantage people totally have the same access to resources as the rest of us. So if all human beings have a responsibility to control it, then we should do nothing to help the AIDS epidemic in Africa then too? Your logic makes no sense.
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Jul 22, 06
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Jul 22, 06
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I've always been a big supporter of harm reduction.
It's become obvious that the traditional method of policing drug problems has not in any way reduced drug use in our society. But it's been proven now that Insite has saved lives, taken users off the streets, helped people get clean, etc etc etc. Sure it's not perfect but it's doing a fuck of alot more to improve things than arresting people and leaving them out to die ever has. As for all this "hoes and junkies"...ah I don't even know how to start. My sister was a heroin addict for ten years. She didn't just wake up one day and decide she was going to go down to Blood Alley, shit just went wrong and eventually she ended up with a serious problem. She is one of the most amazing people I know, sweet, intelligent, creative...and if you saw her in the street (while she was using) you never would have guessed she was a junkie. She's a person as much as you or me. And if it could happen in my family it could happen in yours. If your sister was addicted to heroin would you want to see her die alone in an alley because Harper shut down the one place that may have helped her in her darkest hour?
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Jul 22, 06
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The downtown east side has gotten SO SO SO much better in the past years. The safe injection site provides a way for chronic users to re-enter society, and to feel that they do have the ability to clean if necessary. It's really cleaned up down there. And this is not going to solve the problem one bit. Education & Harm Reduction are truly the keys.
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Jul 23, 06
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I've been in Insite and work with the downtown East Side population at St. Paul's hospital. Seeing first hand the kind of damage that unsafe drug use does to ppl, I definitely think this program should be expanded. You wouldn't believe the long term problems people end up developing after years of using dirty needles--and i'm not just talking about the usual HIV and Hep C infections.
That being said, it's pretty fucking laughable how much our governement spends on prevention. Quote:
do you know how much a day in the hospital costs? it's astronomical compared to how much it costs to run insite.
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Jul 23, 06
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for the people who think insite is a waste of money:
yeah, i really don't think you ppl understand the real cost of drug addiction. the patients i work with have undergone multiple hospital admissions over the years. a few days in the hospital to undergo a round of IV antibiotics can cost about $5000. multiply this by the number of times a 40something year old addict has been in the hospital (which according to what i've seen is about 20 times). insite isn't a solution to the problem, but it's a very good way to cut costs and save tax payers money. pretty much anything that's going to keep these people out of the hospital is going to save huge amounts of money in the future.
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