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Tag: supervised injection facilities

  • Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders Endorse Supervised Injection Facilities

    Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders Endorse Supervised Injection Facilities

    Warren, Sanders and de Blasio are the only 2020 presidential candidates who have voiced support for SIFs. 

    US Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders endorsed safer consumption spaces in late August, a position lauded by harm reduction advocates.

    Safer consumption spaces, also known as supervised injection facilities (SIFs) or overdose prevention sites, “are clinical but community-oriented spaces” where people may use under medical supervision and have a place to access information about treatment for substance use disorder.

    Those in favor of SIFs say “the facilities keep people alive during the drug-using phases of their lives, while also offering them a hand up to a new and better life.” 

    Their Endorsements

    Both Warren and Sanders, who are running for president, said they would support SIFs, if elected.

    As reported by The Hill, Sanders would “legalize safe injection sites and needle exchanges around the country, and support pilot programs for supervised injection sites, which have been shown to substantially reduce drug overdose deaths.”

    Warren would “support evidence-based safe injection sites and needle exchanges and expand the availability” of naloxone.

    Lindsay LaSalle, director of public health law and policy with the Drug Policy Alliance, said the candidates’ endorsement is “significant.” “It shows that there are candidates who, in the context of the opioid crisis… that they’re willing to think outside of the box and look at interventions that have proven successful in other countries.”

    SIFs Around The World

    There are approximately 120 safer consumption spaces currently operating in 12 countries, according to the Drug Policy Alliance. 

    A visit to Vancouver’s Insite was able to convince Philadelphia Police Commissioner Richard Ross that his city needed to follow suit. He said the experience changed him from being “adamantly against [the sites] to having an open mind.”

    Safehouse, the organization trying to open the nation’s first safer consumption spaces in Philadelphia, will fight the good fight in court against the federal government, which has sued the organization for violating federal law.

    “Either way it’s decided, it will set the first legal precedent in the country,” said LaSalle.

    Harm reduction and recovery advocate, Ryan Hampton, told Truthout that he would have attempted recovery sooner had he had access to safer consumption spaces.

    “I would have found my way into recovery much sooner, because I would have established trust with a clinician, a qualified health care provider, instead of some shady treatment center that was just trying to rip off my insurance company, or my mother,” Hampton said.

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Could The Nation's First Supervised Injection Sites Be Coming To Maine?

    Could The Nation's First Supervised Injection Sites Be Coming To Maine?

    Maine’s bill would allow two facilities in the state and create a half-mile “tolerance zone” around each location, where individuals cannot be arrested for using drugs.

    Maine officials held a public hearing Monday to consider a bill that could establish the first safe injection sites in the country. The bill, called “An Act to Prevent Overdose Deaths,” would certify two facilities to “provide safe and secure locations for people to self-administer drugs,” according to FOX 23.

    A number of local governments across the U.S. have considered opening “safe injection sites” or “supervised injection facilities” (SIFs) where individuals can safely use illicit substances with clean equipment and under the supervision of trained medical professionals, without the threat of arrest.

    The philosophy behind these facilities is that people will use drugs one way or another, and giving them a safe space to do so prevents overdose deaths and the spread of HIV and hepatitis C. At the same time, medical professionals on site can offer recommendations for addiction treatment and other health issues related to drug use.

    Places like Maryland, Seattle, San Diego, and Philadelphia have also considered opening safe injection sites. But the process has been slow going, not to mention the threat of legal action from the government. 

    Most recently, the Philadelphia non-profit Safehouse was sued by state prosecutors and the U.S. Department of Justice to stop the opening of the city’s first SIF.

    The legal challenge is based on a section of the federal Controlled Substances Act which intended to close “crack houses” in the ’80s. The ruling on the Philadelphia case is expected to determine the future of SIFs in the country.

    Meanwhile, the first of these sites in North America launched over 15 years ago in Vancouver, Canada. According to the BC Coroner’s Service spokesman, Andy Watson, there has not been a single death reported at any SIF in the province since they opened. At the same time, new HIV cases among people who use injection drugs have fallen by 86% since 2005.

    Maine’s bill would allow two facilities in the state to act as safe injection sites and create a half-mile “tolerance zone” around each location, where individuals cannot be arrested for using drugs. Said facilities would also gather and report demographic data and other information, which would be used to determine if additional sites should be opened.

    According to Maine Public, no one at the Monday hearing spoke against the bill, but “supporters acknowledged that safe injection sites would violate federal law.” So far, it does not appear that there are any legal challenges to this specific bill.

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Surgeon General On Safe Injection Sites: There Are More Viable Options

    Surgeon General On Safe Injection Sites: There Are More Viable Options

    “From a physician’s point of view, there’s no such thing as a safe injection site. You can still die,” Adams said at a recent conference.

    Surgeon General Jerome M. Adams has again expressed reservations about supervised injection sites, also known as safe injection facilities (SIFs), as a harm reduction strategy for fighting the opioid crisis.  

    Speaking at a conference hosted by the Independence Blue Cross Foundation in Philadelphia—titled “Someone You Know: Facing the Opioid Crisis Together”—Adams voiced support for the opioid overdose reversal drug naloxone and medication-assisted treatment (MAT), but in regard to SIF, Adams doubled down on previous statements that urged caution before communities embraced such sites.

    “From a pragmatic point of view, let’s crawl first before we try to figure out how to sprint—particularly on controversial policy solutions,” said Adams.

    At the same time, Adams stated that he did not want to dismiss SIFs as an alternative form of treatment. “It’s not to discourage discussion,” he said. But he also noted that “from a physician’s point of view, there’s no such thing as a safe injection site. You can still die. You can still get an infection. You can still get endocarditis. You can still have negative outcomes even when you’re injecting in a supervised fashion with illegal substances.”

    In its coverage of the conference, Philly Voice quoted Adams’ comments about strategies that have shown to be more effective than granting access to supervised injection.

    “There’s still a lot of low-hanging fruit out there, a lot of evidence-based interventions which have been accepted by the community that still needs to be optimized,” he said, referring to both MAT and naloxone. “There’s still so many more things we could be doing to optimize warm handoffs in connection to treatment. Let’s focus our energy on the things that already exist and aren’t optimized.”

    Adams’ stance on SIF differs in tone from that of the Trump administration, which has expressed no reservation in opposing such facilities. Both also contrast the opinion of Luke Gorman, co-founder of the recovery support group The Flock, who was also on the panel with Adams at the conference.

    “It’s my personal opinion that [SIFs] would be an incredible effective measure to save lives,” said Gorman, who is in recovery from opioid dependency. “Right now, with the epidemic and the proportions that it’s reached, saving lives should be in the forefront of all of our minds.”

    Gorman’s take was echoed by Daniel J. Hilferty, CEO of Independence Blue Cross and another speaker on the panel. “It’s not up to us as to whether we’re pro-safe injection sites or we’re opposed to safe injection sites,” he said. “We just want to create a web, as a company connected with other partners, to catch every single person that we can and help them find that right path to true professional services and treatment.”

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Seattle Not Intimidated By Threats Against Supervised Injection Facilities

    Seattle Not Intimidated By Threats Against Supervised Injection Facilities

    “We took note of what the DOJ wrote about this, but we believe strongly in a public health approach to substance abuse disorder,” Mayor Durkan said. 

    The city of Seattle will move forward with plans to open a supervised injection facility (SIF), despite the possibility that the federal government will intervene, KUOW reports.

    Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan affirmed on Sept. 20 that the city will proceed despite the Department of Justice’s promise to respond with “swift and aggressive action.”

    In a New York Times op-ed published in August, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein made clear the federal government’s opposition to SIFs, declaring that they will “only make the opioid crisis worse.”

    “Because federal law clearly prohibits injection sites, cities and counties should expect the Department of Justice to meet the opening of any injection site with swift and aggressive action,” wrote Rosenstein.

    But city officials and proponents say Seattle and greater King County need “an aggressive, comprehensive approach” to the drug crisis as drug-related deaths rise. According to a recent report by Seattle & King County Public Health, drug and alcohol-related deaths have increased for six consecutive years in King County.

    “We took note of what the Department of Justice wrote about this, we’re cognizant of it, but we believe strongly in a public health approach to substance abuse disorder,” said Mayor Durkan.

    Last Monday, Durkan released a proposed budget that would set aside $1.3 million to fund the SIF pilot program. “You’ll see in the budget that we will continue to work for safe injection sites,” said the mayor. “We want this to be part of a holistic system of treatment.” The final vote on whether to adopt the budget is set for mid-November, following budget proposal hearings in October.

    Last we heard, the plan was to establish two supervised injection facilities—one in Seattle and one elsewhere in King County. The idea came from a list of recommendations on how to best address the region’s drug problem presented by the county’s Heroin and Prescription Opiate Addiction Task Force in 2016.

    KUOW reports that Seattle officials are seeking a location “likely downtown or in Belltown” for the SIF, in addition to a mobile unit that will serve the same purpose. However, Durkan said they are still working on the “framework” with the county before they can set a location. 

    While opponents say the sites will do more harm than good, proponents say that they save lives and increase the probability of connecting people with treatment.

    “Treatment is really the main bottom line that we’re trying to promote as the most effective, you know, population-wide intervention,” said Dr. Jeff Duchin, health officer for King County. “We want people getting in long-term treatment. And this is just one doorway that we can use to get people into treatment.”

    View the original article at thefix.com