Heroin Injection Clinics Save Lives
According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIH), the number of overdose deaths from opiates has skyrocketed in the last decade. Between 2001 and 2014, overdose deaths from heroin went from 2,000 to roughly 12,000: a 6-fold increase. Opioid pain relievers (such as morphine and oxycontin) accounted for 19,000 overdose deaths in 2014 as opposed to the 5,500 deaths in 2001.
Mayor Svante Myrick, of Ithaca, New York, is opening the very first heroin injection center in the United States. His goal with the clinic is to help prevent drug overdose, reduce the spread of infectious diseases, reduce drug-related crimes, and promote addiction treatment.
Charts below come from www.drugabuse.gov)
Combined heroin and opioid overdose deaths in 2014 totaled 31,000.
Mayor Myrick believes the criminal justice system in America has failed, where drug treatment programs and drug injection centers have succeeded.
The first “supervised injection” facility to open in North America was in Vancouver, Canada in 2003, called Insite. Insite touts full support from the World Health Organization and the Canadian Public Health Association because of their success in disease prevention, crime reduction, and addiction recovery.
The injection clinic brags a 70% addiction recovery rate, which blows the best anti-drug campaigns out of the water. But recovery programs will never replace prevention programs. We need both. But we do need both.
Protestors and activists against the clinic believed it was condoning drug use. The federal government sued the clinic, arguing that Insite fostered addiction and promoted crime — despite all the evidence to the contrary. But the Supreme Court saw the recovery statistics from the injection clinic and ruled against the federal government for trying to shut it down.
In 2009, Time Magazine did an excellent article on this subject. Clinics in Great Britain (the second country in Europe to introduce an injection clinic) actually offered heroin as a regulated medication for hardened, long-time addicts who were not able to respond to detox and methadone alone.
Britain did a 4-year trial involving addicts in London, Darlington and Brighton, in an effort to wean addicts off the heroin. Participants were divided into three groups. Group 1 was given heroin. Groups 2 and 3 were given intravenous methadone and oral methadone. All three groups received counseling and social services. All three groups improved physically and mentally. But Group 1 did the best by far. After only 6 months, three-quarters of this study group had largely stopped taking street heroin, and the number of crimes had also decreased by 70% — astounding results after such a short period of time.
And statistics improve even more over time. Britain’s clinics boast an 85% recovery rate among addicts who attend their clinic. Often they are prescribed low doses of morphine and methadone to keep the heroin craving at bay. But they get their lives back.
Time Magazine talks about Sarah, a participant who had a 20-year heroin habit and countless failed attempts at quitting her addiction. Sarah states that most of her time was chaotically spent either “doing drugs”, or “looking for money to buy drugs”. When she came to the clinic, she found huge progress within only a few short months.
“It was the right decision, and it was my decision, so I feel quite stable in my recovery,” she says.
Like many of the clinic’s visitors, Sarah received help with housing and with her depression, and she even served as a mentor for inmates getting out of prison.
“Within the first year of the trial, Sarah had reduced her injections from twice a day to once, and she recently quit heroin altogether in favor of a mixture of morphine and methadone. She hopes to be off the drugs soon, crediting her resolve to the program’s nonjudgmental attitude.”
Another study from Arizona State University examined traditional drug treatment and recidivism. This study had similar results, but the subjects were a narrower group. Only non-violent, first-time offenders participated in this study. They were part of a program designed to divert individuals from jail. Only 22% of the individuals who completed the drug treatment program reoffended within 5 years, compared to 52% of those offenders who refused the treatment program and opted for prosecution and jail instead.
Most states, at the very least, offer traditional drug treatment programs instead of jail time because the recidivism rate is so low.
But what about the hardened, long-time addicts who have been offending (and suffering) for decades? Is there any hope for them? For our society? For their families?
The whole world over is beginning to see addicts in a new light: not strictly as criminals, but as patients in need of serious treatment. Canada’s Insite actually refers to visiting addicts as “clients.” Ensuring safe and sanitary doses of drugs is only part of the picture.
Insite’s bigger goal is to help clients “develop trusting relationships with our health care and social workers, making them more likely to pursue withdrawal management (detox), addiction counseling and other addiction treatment services.” And 70% of them find huge success!
Are there still overdoses? Yes. Out of the 193,764 visits to the injection room in 2012, there were 497 that resulted in an overdose — less than 3%. But doctors and staff intervened immediately with appropriate medical attention. Furthermore, the nurses are able to decrease patients’ dosages over time, both preventing overdose and helping the individual to wean off of the drug entirely.
Are we sending the wrong message to drug users by persuading them to “shoot up at our clinic! We’ll help you!”
Most clients would disagree. They don’t want to overdose. They don’t want to get HIV. They don’t want to live in filth. They don’t want to be criminals. They care about their lives. They want to be contributing members of society. They want their dreams back. But their bodies NEED the drug. Because of this clinic, at least 70% of the addicts who visit are able to confront and overcome their addictions and return to society as contributing members, and finally achieve their own dreams again.
Because of the clinics in Great Britain, 85% of the addicts recover.
The message is, addicts deserve a shot too. No pun intended.
[This story is also posted on my blog at steemit.com under the account ‘littlescribe’. Feel free to rate it there!]
