Suburban drug users still at risk, however, critics contend The city is considering creating three supervised injection sites in downtown Toronto, but community health-care providers in Scarborough say drug users in the suburbs remain at risk. "We do serve a vulnerable population, some of them who could have serious drug abuse problems," said Kim Cook, the vice president of community health at the Scarborough Centre for Healthy Communities. "Having a safe injection site - at least one - would really help." The city's board of health approved a proposal to integrate injection services into healthcare clinics at three locations - Queen Street West, Central Toronto and South Riverdale. [continues 136 words]
Group says war on drugs has failed and suggests decriminalisation the first step to solving problems A group of 22 medical experts convened by Johns Hopkins University and The Lancet have called this week for the decriminalisation of all non- violent drug use and possession. Citing a growing scientific consensus on the failures of the global war on drugs, the experts further encourage countries and US states to "move gradually toward regulated drug markets and apply the scientific method to their assessment". [continues 777 words]
Global Report Urges UN to Back Decriminalisation Commission Backs Move to Legal, Regulated Markets Medical experts are calling for global drug decriminalisation, arguing that current policies are leading to violence, death and the spread of disease, harming both health and human rights. The experts, working as an international commission, set up by the Lancet medical journal and Johns Hopkins University in the US, find that tough drug laws have caused misery, failed to curb drug use, fuelled violent crime, and helped spread HIV and hepatitis C epidemics perpetuated by unsafe injecting. [continues 626 words]
ITHACA, N.Y. - Even Svante L. Myrick, the mayor of this city, thought the proposal sounded a little crazy, though it was put forth by a committee he had appointed. The plan called for establishing a site where people could legally shoot heroin - something that does not exist anywhere in the United States. "Heroin is bad, and injecting heroin is bad, so how could supervised heroin injection be a good thing?" Mr. Myrick, a Democrat, said. But he also knew he had to do something drastic to confront the scourge of heroin in his city in central New York. So he was willing to take a chance and embrace the radical notion, knowing well that it would provoke a backlash. [continues 1204 words]
"You wanna get high, man?" Shawn Gale made the offer during an interview near a downtown Edmonton flophouse. "Naw. I don't put needles in my arm," I said. "I can do it for you," kidded the 30-year-old, heavily bearded Gale. Sharing needles, just one of the potentially deadly practices sparking work by an Edmonton group planning to dose the city with its first supervised injection sites; passing around a needle is often also passing around diseases like HIV and hepatitis, a serious and potentially fatal liver infection. [continues 671 words]
Do Alberta cities need supervised injection sites similar to InSite in Vancouver - places where drug users can inject in clean, safer environments? Calgary Liberal MLA David Swann doesn't hesitate for a second when asked. "Absolutely," says Swann, who worked as a physician before being elected, and recently co-chaired a committee reviewing Alberta's addiction and mental health system. "It's not treatment, it's not healing. It's not all that we want, but it's going to reduce the harm done to individuals and their contacts." [continues 353 words]
An Edmonton group that's closely studied local drug use is working to establish the city's first supervised injection sites. Elaine Hyshka, a University of Alberta public health researcher and core member of Access to Medically Supervised Injection Services Edmonton, said group members envision a network of supervised injection services offered through organizations already working with homeless and disadvantaged people in Edmonton's core. "This is something that's long overdue in Edmonton and other cities," said Hyshka. " is service will literally save lives." [continues 931 words]
Not only are the legislative hurdles to safe injection sites unnecessary and unjustifiable, but also in some places, they will be nearly impossible to overcome Supervised injection sites have the potential "to save countless lives." This is what Federal Health Minister Jane Philpott told the CBC last week, echoing what she said this year when she visited Insite, a supervised injection site in Vancouver. This clear support is a welcome change at the federal level, and was reflected in Canada's unprecedented statement last week at the UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs in Vienna. [continues 534 words]
Drug overdoses are a serious public health issue in Toronto. There were 206 deaths in 2013, a 41 per cent increase over the past 10 years. Many of these deaths were preventable and we need to do more to save the lives of some of the most vulnerable members of our community. As a city, we need a comprehensive response to the drug problem that includes supervised injection services. I recently released a report to the Toronto Board of Health that highlights the health benefits of supervised injection services and outlines the next steps that need to be taken to implement these services in Toronto. [continues 490 words]
More than 50 community leaders say supervised injection services are needed in Toronto to save lives and are urging communities to focus on facts over fear. "I call on all Torontonians to learn more about this issue. If you learn about it, I believe you'll support it," said former mayor Barbara Hall, who was joined at a city hall news conference by predecessors John Sewell and David Crombie along with a dozen other leading health officials, community and religious leaders. [continues 545 words]
Dead people don't recover. That's the working principle behind harm reduction: Avoiding the ultimate harm that could befall drug addicts by facilitating lesser harms, primarily via aiding and abetting in the consumption of those drugs in a safer environment. The idea is somewhat counterintuitive. It also puts the addict at the centre of a radical social policy that doesn't always give sufficient consideration to the broader community that will be affected. Good intentions can lead to bad consequences. [continues 787 words]
Any solution to the numerous problems associated with the injection of illegal drugs is bound to be imperfect. In a perfect world, no one would be abusing intravenous drugs. But in the messier reality we inhabit, people are overdosing and dying in disturbing numbers while communities are degraded by the consequences of a look-away, not-my-problem approach to drug use. Three health centres across downtown Toronto are planning to open supervised injection programs, providing what is described as a safe and hygienic environment where addicts can inject powerful, illegally obtained drugs such as heroin and fentanyl under a nurse's watchful eye. The city's medical officer of health is strongly supportive. So are others across the country. So is the federal government. [continues 290 words]
Singapore's uncompromising stance against drugs is the reason it has stayed relatively drug-free, with arrested drug abusers comprising less than 0.1 per cent of the country's population. Senior Minister of State for Home Affairs Desmond Lee said this on Monday at a meeting of international delegates, at the United Nations Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND) in Vienna, Austria. The event is a preparatory meeting for the upcoming UN General Assembly Special Session on the world's drug problem next month, when members will set goals for global drug control in the next decade. [continues 550 words]
Downplay Odds of Many Users Taking Advantage More than 12 years ago, Insite began offering needle drug users a sterile, safe environment on Vancouver's Downtown Eastside. Hundreds of people have overdosed there since; none have died. Now Toronto may be headed down the same road. A report from the city 's medical officer of health, David McKeown, released Monday, envisions three safe-injection sites in areas of high drug use concentration, incorporated ( unlike Insite) into existing health services: at Toronto Public Health's The Works clinic, at Yonge and Dundas; the Queen- West Central Toronto Health Centre at Queen and Bathurst; and the South Riverdale Community Health Centre in Leslieville. [continues 674 words]
I've been an emergency physician in downtown Toronto for more than 30 years, and I regularly see patients with health problems related to the injection of illicit drugs. The problems might be caused by the drug itself, such as an overdose, but often the woes I see are caused by the use of dirty or shared needles. These include abscesses, heart damage, and viral infections such as hepatitis C or HIV. These complications not only make users ill, they also cost a lot of money and health-care resources to treat; and they pose a danger to others by furthering the spread of infectious diseases. [continues 628 words]
Overdoses kill more than 200 people a year in city, so federal permission expected to be forthcoming Toronto is joining the growing list of Canadian cities - including Ottawa and Montreal - that plan to set up safe-injection sites. Safe-injection sites provide a place for people to take illicitly obtained drugs while supervised by nurses or other health care staff in order to prevent overdoses. They typically also provide sterile injection equipment. As it stands, there are more than 90 safe-injection sites worldwide, but only two legal sites in Canada, both in Vancouver. According to local media reports, Toronto's top health official is planning on following suit, opening "multiple" facilities, also called supervised-injection or supervised-consumption sites. [continues 283 words]
The evidence is in: supervised sites allowing users to inject illegal drugs save lives. But they do much more than that. Providing a secure place for people to use heroin and other injection drugs leads to cleaner, safer neighbourhoods. It boosts overall public health by reducing the spread of blood-borne infections, such as HIV and hepatitis C. And it saves money by lowering the huge cost associated with treating such conditions. In short, there's every reason to proceed with a plan to open three supervised injection sites in Toronto. [continues 651 words]
The Sandy Hill Community Health Centre is planning to consult the public this spring about adding a safe-injection site to its building at Rideau and Nelson streets, says the man who runs the Centre's drug-treatment programs. "We're basically on the same path as Toronto," Rob Boyd said Monday morning after news that Toronto's board of health is going to consider three specific sites - two at community health centres and one run by Toronto's public health unit itself. [continues 695 words]
Toronto is joining the growing list of Canadian cities - including Ottawa and Montreal - that plan to set up safe-injection sites. Safe-injection sites provide a place for people to take illicitly obtained drugs, while supervised by nurses or other health care staff in order to prevent overdoses. They typically also provide sterile injection equipment. As it stands, there are more than 90 safe-injection sites worldwide, but only two legal sites in Canada, both in Vancouver. Local media reports say Toronto's top health official is planning on following suit, opening "multiple" facilities, also called supervised-injection or supervised-consumption sites. [continues 251 words]
ITHACA, N.Y. - A bustling economy. Record-low unemployment. A ballooning heroin problem. That's how Mayor Svante Myrick describes Ithaca, where he hopes to open the nation's first safe injection facility - a place where heroin users can shoot their illegal drugs under medical supervision and without fear of arrest. His proposal, part of a plan to address drug abuse in the college town of 31,000 in central New York, is not a novel idea. Safe injection sites, which also connect clients to treatment programs and offer emergency care to reverse overdoses, exist in 27 cities in other parts of the world. Some have been around for decades. [continues 592 words]
