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SAFER INJECTING FACILITY IN VANCOVER CANADA AND CHANGES IN PUBLIC ORDER
- Ediriweera B.R., Desapriya (29 September 2004)
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The stigma of being the only black swan on the lake
- Dr. Herbert H. Nehrlich (30 September 2004)
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Ediriweera B.R., Desapriya, Research Associate-Department of Pediatrics Centre for Community child Health Research, 4480 Oak Street Vancouver BC V6H 3V4
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Health officials in Vancouver opened a government-sanctioned safer injecting facility as pilot project in 2003. The facility, the first in North America, is centrally located in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside, which is the most impoverished urban neighborhood in Canada and home to well-documented overdose and HIV epidemics among the estimated 5000 injection drug users (IDUs) who reside there (1,2,3). This recent study has appeared in Canadian Medical Association Journal (CMAJ) showed significant reductions in public injection drug use, publicly discarded syringes and injection-related litter after the opening of the medically supervised safer injecting facility in Vancouver. In addition the researchers have shown that these reductions were independent of law enforcement activities and changes in rainfall patterns1 (1). As discussed by the research team we should agree that the overall health impacts of the facility will take several years to evaluate, the findings from this study should be valuable to other cities that are contemplating similar evaluations and should have substantial relevance to many urban areas where public injection drug use has been associated with substantial public health risks (1,2,4,5,6) and adverse community impacts (1,2,3). REFERENCES: 1. Wood, E.,.Kerr, T., Small, W., Li, K., Marsh, D.C., Julio S.G. Montaner, J.S.G. Mark, M.W., Changes in public order after the opening of a medically supervised safer injecting facility for illicit injection drug users CMAJ 28, 2004; 171 (7). 2.Dovey K, Fitzgerald J, Choi Y. Safety becomes danger: dilemmas of drug-use in public space. Health Place 2001;7(4):319-31 3.Broadhead RS, Kerr TH, Altice FL. Safer injection facilities in North America: their place in public policy and health initiatives. J Drug Issues 2002; 32 (1): 329-55 4.Wood E, Kerr T, Spittal PM, Li K, Small W, Tyndall MW, et al. The potential public health and community impacts of safer injecting facilities: evidence from a cohort of injection drug users. J Acquir Immune Defic Syndr 2003; 32 (1): 2-8 5.Klee H, Morris J. Factors that characterize street injectors. Addiction 1995; 90 (6): 837-41 6.Darke S, Kaye S, Ross J. Geographical injecting locations among injecting drug users in Sydney, Australia. Addiction 2001; 96(2):241-6 Competing interests: None declared |
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Dr. Herbert H. Nehrlich, Private Practice Bribie Island, Australia 4507
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Doctor Desapriya would like it if the world could overcome the stigma of Aids. Good luck, sir. Schizophrenia has been around a lot longer and the stigma is alive, well and continues to be quite destructive. A brilliant physician in Dr.Desapriya's neck o' the woods (Victoria, BC)has been fighting that disease for over 50 years, much more successfully than the medical mainstream. Yet the stigma is the biggest obstacle in any attempt to re-integrate these people into society. Imagine the applicant in a job interview: "Yes, I am a schizophrenic but I can work...". Or, front up at any medical lab and state the purpose of your visit: " I am here to get an AIDS blood test." Competing interests: None declared |
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