Middletown considers 3 strike policy on responding to overdoses

[Jabberwocky]

If there is a net benefit to the community from implementing safe injection sites, needle exchanges and other public services (this has been well documented in places like Vancouver), I think that is an appropriate way to spend tax dollars.

I find your tendency to blame the drug users for the failure of drug policy very disturbing.

Naloxone is also still very difficult to get, especially if you're going to a private pharmacy. It's hardly being used as effectively as it could be, very far from it. Naloxone isn't quite as expensive as it once was, but that doesn't necessarily mean it's any easier for the majority of people to get.

 

[poledriver]

Sydney, Australia has also had a very successful supervised injection centre running for a long time now with not one single fatal overdose. They've been operating in the heart of Sydney at Kings Cross since 2001. Here's some info -

Our aims

Save lives
Reduce the number of injuries caused by injecting drugs
Connect with people, welcome them and provide holistic support with dignity and respect
Step in during all drug overdoses and provide assistance
Provide access to health and social welfare services for people who are marginalised and find it hard to access this type of support
Promote awareness and understanding in the community
Contribute to a safe, healthy and comfortable environment for the local community
Enhance the health community’s knowledge about injecting drug use.

The benefits of the centre

Research has shown that supervised injecting facilities like Uniting MSIC have many benefits for their clients, as well as the local community. Some key facts and figures in independent evaluations of the Uniting MSIC have shown that the centre is making a positive difference in the lives of many people. The following statistics reflect the operation of Uniting MSIC to May 2015.

Approximate number of clients since Uniting MSIC opened: 15,400.

About 70% of the people registered with Uniting MSIC have never accessed any local health service before coming to us. This shows that Uniting MSIC provides a unique and important entry point for access to health and social welfare services in Kings Cross.
Since opening we have supervised more than 965,000 injections.

Number of injections a day: Ranges from 140–250. Currently about 180
Number of overdoses successfully managed: More than 6000
Number of fatalities: 0
We’ve taken the pressure off emergency services with an early study showing the number of ambulance call-outs to Kings Cross dropping by 80%.
We are well accepted: 70% of local businesses and 78% of local residents support the centre.

More than 12,000 referrals have been accepted by our clients, connecting them to health, drug treatment and social welfare services. Among our frequently attending clients, 80% have ultimately accepted a referral for addiction treatment.

All of the other 20% of frequently attending clients have had a referral offered to them but not accepted as yet.

Most have agreed to talk about their situation with a staff member, who outlines the benefits of treatment. Importantly, we continue to work with everyone we see.

The service has been independently evaluated multiple times. All results show it is successful and cost-effective.

There are over 110 peer reviewed papers on medically supervised injecting that show facilities like this work.

https://uniting.org/who-we-help/for-adults/sydney-medically-supervised-injecting-centre

 

[hydroazuanacaine]

I do agree with you about the safe injection sites, although then I'd wonder where the money for these things would come from?

Hopefully not tax dollars, considering junkies don't really contribute much in that department.

expecting the margenilized to significantly fund their own support services is not realistic. tax dollars going to programs for those who cannot themselves afford the provided life improving/saving services sounds ideal.

 

[Boku_]

Sydney, Australia has also had a very successful supervised injection centre running for a long time now with not one single fatal overdose. They've been operating in the heart of Sydney at Kings Cross since 2001. Here's some info -



https://uniting.org/who-we-help/for-adults/sydney-medically-supervised-injecting-centre

Yeah the Sydney medically supervised injecting centre really is a good example of how effective on a harm reducation point of view this approach provides for saving the lives of drug users not too mention the reduced spread of blood borne viruses and diseases. Although the political elite and law makers of places like Australia and Canada have always been far more progressive than the conservative leaders and judges who call the shots in the States.

Like seriously $30 to save a persons life is too big a burden for tax payers but how many billions Americans spend on their military budget. If America had kept their armies the fuck out of Afghanistan and Iraq and put all the money that those invasions/wars cost into establishing a fair universal health care system the $30,000 Middletown spent on narcan to save heroin users lives would be chicken shit.

 

[S.J.B.]

The enormously expensive policy of global drug prohibition has created such a heinous level of harm for users of certain drugs that it is ludicrous to complain about the pittance that is being spent on mitigating that damage.

 

[Boku_]

So true S.J.B. The cost to American tax payers to keep every repeat 3 strikes drug felon in prison for life would easily pay for supervised injecting centres in just about every major American city if all illegal drugs were legalised.

At least 50 percent of crime would be wiped out over night if the sale of narcotics were made legal affordable and regulated. Hell of a lot more safer for the end user too.

 

[subotai]

Idk maybe I'm just a heartless asshole but, in my opinion, overdoses are something that you have to accept as a possibility of happening if you use heroin.

I certainly would hope that someone could revive me with Narcan but if it didn't happen for whatever reason, well that's still on me.

I've been hit with Narcan twice in my life FTR. So if I was in this town I'd be on my last strike I guess. Probably would lead me to stop shooting so much dope at once

or, alternatively, just let me die then. I just don't get how you can try and push my problems onto other people

believe me, I'm a drug addict through and through, but I dont think it should be someone else's responsibility to continuously save my life while I show blatant disregard for my own personal safety. That's just a dick move. And where do you draw the line then? Middletown chose 3, which is what it is. I guess shoot heroin in the next town over?

 

[Pretty_Diamonds]

Idk maybe I'm just a heartless asshole but, in my opinion, overdoses are something that you have to accept as a possibility of happening if you use heroin.

I certainly would hope that someone could revive me with Narcan but if it didn't happen for whatever reason, well that's still on me.

I've been hit with Narcan twice in my life FTR. So if I was in this town I'd be on my last strike I guess. Probably would lead me to stop shooting so much dope at once

or, alternatively, just let me die then. I just don't get how you can try and push my problems onto other people

believe me, I'm a drug addict through and through, but I dont think it should be someone else's responsibility to continuously save my life while I show blatant disregard for my own personal safety. That's just a dick move. And where do you draw the line then? Middletown chose 3, which is what it is. I guess shoot heroin in the next town over?

Would it really? Knowing that.. would it really?

 

[tokezu]

Idk maybe I'm just a heartless asshole but, in my opinion, overdoses are something that you have to accept as a possibility of happening if you use heroin.

I certainly would hope that someone could revive me with Narcan but if it didn't happen for whatever reason, well that's still on me.

But is that a problem that heroin just brings with itself or is it mostly a problem of getting your heroin from the black market? If people were able to use pure heroin of reliable strength there wouldn't be nearly as many overdoses, no? So while addicts can't be totally absolved of responsibility, I think the government has to take some responsibility too. After all it is their drug policy that makes taking drugs more dangerous that it needs to be. But this cannot be admitted of course, because it shows the underlying hypocrisy of drug prohibition: First we declare that people are not able to withstand the temptation of drugs, so we have to prohibit drugs in order to protect the people from those drugs. Then we fail to actually protect the people from the drugs, because by this logic we'd have to actually make drugs unavailable (remember, those poor people just can't help themselves once there is the option of doing drugs), which is obviously impossible. Then we decide that those people who were powerless to resist the temptation of drugs and whom we failed to protect from these drugs, are really the ones who should take the blame, we have done everything we could, maybe they just don't want to be helped. So let's put them in jail or let them die in the street, that will teach them!

It's beyond me how anybody could think you could help people by increasing the amount of harm that they face. Whether it is denying people clean syringes, drug checking or Narcan, all that achieves is to enable the government to take the moral high ground and say "Doing that would only encourage them to take drugs!" at the price of increasing, absolutely needless, suffering.