Pubdate: Sat, 11 Feb 2017
Source: London Free Press (CN ON)
Copyright: 2017 The London Free Press
Contact: http://www.lfpress.com/letters
Website: http://www.lfpress.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/243
Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v17/n063/a08.html
Author: Tim Bush
Page: A11

INJECT SOME GOALS

Regarding the article "Set up safe needle site in London, study says"
(Feb. 9).

If London is going ahead with safe injection sites why do we not get a
doctor or nurse practitioner to run it with the goal of weaning these
people off the drug?

Set it up so if they are enrolled in the program they will be safe
from prosecution, and if they do not sign up for it they will be
prosecuted if caught with it.

The ones signed up can sit down with the doctor when they first join
and they can figure out together how much they use a day, how many
times a day and how much each time. From there the doctor and addict
can set up a reduction plan so that each time they come in it can be
slightly reduced by so much a day for a week, and then each week after
reducing again slightly.

This way the addict will be free of worrying about criminal charges
and by reducing it gradually they will not feel the effects of withdrawal.

By doing this the taxpayers who are against wasting their hard-earned
tax money on this may not feel the resentment of their tax money just
being wasted to give the user a warm dry place to do their drugs with
the only real benefit being not spreading hepatitis C and AIDS. This
way the end goal is weaning them off of it, not just giving out free
needles.

Tim Bush

London
- ---
MAP posted-by: Matt