Safe Environments for IV Drug Users

While the United States has one of the biggest problems with addictive drugs when compared to other developed nations, the country is struggling to find ways to educate, prevent and treat the millions of Americans battling addiction. Last week, we wrote about a serious lack of treatment counselors and beds, which means that the vast majority of addicts fail to receive the help they so desperately need. In the meantime, people continue to die from overdoses every day.

In recent years, a number of states and municipalities have made it easier for prescription opioid and heroin addicts to acquire the life saving drug naloxone. A drug which has the power to reverse the effects of an opioid overdose, preventing needless fatal overdoses. Is that enough to stem the tide? In a number of countries, a novel approach to preventing overdose has been adopted. IV drug users can go to what are known as “safe injection sites,” where users can inject their drugs under the supervision of trained medical staffers.

While such services are highly confidential, they do have the power to save lives and give addiction counselors the opportunity to talk with addicts about recovery - such opportunities can be far and few between. It is no secret that the New England area has been one of the hardest hit by the opioid scourge which takes as many as 78 lives a day throughout the country. In response, a Boston nonprofit has a project in the works that would provide a place for people under the influence of drugs to wait out their high under the eye of a nurse, NPR reports. Unlike the eight countries which currently offer safe injection sites, the Boston program would be a limited version as it will not allow people to inject onsite.

"It's not a place where people would be injecting," said project founder Dr. Jessie Gaeta, chief medical officer at the Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program. "But it's a place where people would come if they're high and they need a safe place to be that's not a street corner, and not a bathroom by themselves, where they're at high risk of dying if they do overdose."