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