Ithaca’s Anti-Heroin Plan: Open a Site to Shoot Heroin

[slimvictor]

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.

And it has.

Ever since Mr. Myrick, 29, unveiled a plan last month for what he called a “supervised injection facility,” critics have pounced on it as a harebrained idea that would just enable more drug abuse. A Republican state legislator, Tom O’Mara, called it “preposterous” and “asinine,” and a Cornell law professor, William A. Jacobson, said it would be a “government-run heroin shooting gallery.”

But others, including workers on the front lines of the heroin epidemic and some law enforcement officials, view the proposal as an important tool in the battle against addiction and overdoses, a way to keep users alive long enough to connect them to treatment. In the plan, users would be under medical supervision and could inject only a small amount of heroin.

cont at
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/23/n...n-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=0

 

[slimvictor]

"Heroin is bad"

No, heroin is a chemical. It is no moral capacity. Actually, taking chemicals into our bodies has little to do with morality. It does have a lot to do with freedom, though. The moral argument is for each individual to decide. The freedom to take heroin and other drugs must be granted to the individual.

In the plan, users would be under medical supervision and could inject only a small amount of heroin.

Oh, so you can do your naughty thing here, but just a little of it, ok? Because a little is kind of ok, but a lot is SUPER bad.

Well, I am feeling sarcastic today, but I am glad that they are taking baby steps in the right direction, at least.

 

[neversickanymore]

Looks like he is waiting for people to join him on the smart couch.. well?

NSFW:

This begins to address the situation that is killing so many good people.. Way to take a stand that will have a positive effect.

RESPECT

 

[LucidSDreamr]

The mainstream approach being employed however is to take away pain medicine from the old-aged disabled/chronic pain patients that have been taking pills for decades without abusing them. This will make young people "just say no" to injecting the abundant heroin that will never stop flowing into the US..

What they should really do to stop 20-30 yr olds from injecting heroin is take away pain pills from 50-70 year old cancer patients also...but this amazing solution is not allowable because of the following fact:

its only ok to force adults to live in agony so the kids can stop injecting heroin if they will be living bedridden in agony for another 20 years or until they can get their hands on a gun and blow off their head....if they only have to live in agony for a few months until their cancer kills them then it is NOT ok to force them to live in agony without meds so that young people can stop injecting heroin.



Dear god, please pull the fucking plug on this sick perverse nasty thing called humans already.

 

[JessFR]

No, heroin is a chemical. It is no moral capacity. Actually, taking chemicals into our bodies has little to do with morality. It does have a lot to do with freedom, though. The moral argument is for each individual to decide. The freedom to take heroin and other drugs must be granted to the individual.


Oh, so you can do your naughty thing here, but just a little of it, ok? Because a little is kind of ok, but a lot is SUPER bad.

Well, I am feeling sarcastic today, but I am glad that they are taking baby steps in the right direction, at least.

How retarded, theres no such thing as a small amount, it's all relative. A small amount for a beginning user wouldn't do anything at all for addicts like me. I simply wouldn't go.

I have something slightly like this happen at the methadone clinic I go to. On the occasion I use, my doctor asks how much she responds "why are you taking so much!!", and I feel like she's an idiot... What I'm taking is NOT much, it's very little. But when you worked your way up to a massive habit, normal amounts aren't going to do much are they?

 

[manboychef]

The only thing I would be worried about is cops staking the place out to arrest people going in. It is a proven fact that cops will always go for low hanging fruit.

 

[garbagegutz]

this works in SYdney here in OZ - created a lot of a shit fight with the moral rights but it makes sense.

http://www.sydneymsic.com/

The Sydney Medically Supervised Injecting Centre (MSIC) recognises that drug addiction is a chronic, relapsing condition and that it is complex and difficult to treat. MSIC does not support or promote drug use; it simply acknowledges that it is a fact of life.

 

[Felonious Monk]

The only thing I would be worried about is cops staking the place out to arrest people going in. It is a proven fact that cops will always go for low hanging fruit.

But if the prosecutor refuses to prosecute it than they will stop, especially in a wealthy white quiet town like Ithaca. If they do this it'll be a total city effort.