If you’re gonna do it, do it under a nurse’s supervision.
That’s the philosophy of the mayor of Ithaca, New York, who wants to open up a heroin injection facility in his town. At the proposed facility, a nurse would be onsite and armed with naloxone, an opioid overdose antidote, in order to prevent ODs or other complications.
“Using heroin is bad for you,” Ithaca Mayor Svante Myrick told The Huffington Post. “Dying from an overdose is even worse. We have to keep people alive and get them the resources to get clean. They won’t get those resources in public bathrooms and behind dumpsters in alleys.”
Myrick believes injection centers have the ability to “save lives, reduce illnesses and help people kick heroin.”
Myrick is particularly progressive possibly because he is young — just 28. He grew up poor and surrounded by drugs; his father was a crack addict.
In Canada and Europe, heroin overdoses are down because of facilities like these. In Myrick’s opinion, it’s the only way that’s worked to keep fatalities down.
“We can’t continue to try the policies that have so badly failed to keep our friends and family alive and healthy,” he said.
According to NPR, NY Governor Andrew Cuomo did not respond to a request for comment on the issue.
Leo Beletsky, a professor of law and health sciences at Northeastern University in Boston, pointed out that the legalization of marijuana in states such as Colorado was technically illegal given federal laws.
“Basically, if you play your cards right you can potentially do things that are illegal and yet are tolerated,” Beletsky told NPR.
Vancouver opened an injection facility in 2003. Between 2004 and 2005, researchers believe the center curbed overdose deaths by 35 percent in its neighborhood and 10 percent throughout the city.
In the U.S., there were 47,055 lethal drug overdoses in 2014, according to the American Society of Addiction Medicine.
About 435,000 people aged 12 or older were addicted to heroin in 2014, says the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA).
The same year, 0.3 percent of people aged 12 or older — or 914,000 Americans — used heroin at least once, also according to SAMHSA. In 2002, this rate was at 0.1 percent.
In New York state, overdoses have more than doubled in recent years, from 215 in 2008 to 478 in 2012. The epidemic is real.
This plan for the Ithaca facility has been in the works for 18 months. Mayor Myrick wants to open a 24-hour crisis center that would manage the prescriptions of addicts trying to quit. It would also enact what’s called Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion, a program that sends heroin addicts to counseling and rehab instead of jail.
However, the idea might be a pipe dream. In order for Myrick to see the project to fruition, there would need to be a legal exemption from the state of New York or some kind of authorization. There would also need to be authorization from the federal government.
Myrick believes he will be given the greenlight from government and that his facility will open in two years.
Meanwhile, similar initiatives are taking place in Seattle and in the state of Maryland.
I’m all for heroin injection centers. We need Hugs Not Heroin. Any program that reduces overdose and points addicts in the right direction to get treatment is honorable. Lawmakers should take a serious look at the successes of the programs in Vancouver, and Europe.
