It’s become increasingly obvious that past
and current methods of waging the so-called
“War on Drugs” have been largely ineffective.
So the authorities in Seattle are opting for
a different tactic – a heroin safe zone.
There’s no way around it: the United States
is the world’s biggest illicit drug market.
While use of a few drugs seems to be declining,
some areas of the country are in the grip
of an opioid epidemic.
In Seattle alone, for example, deaths from
heroin overdoses rose by 58% over the course
of 2014, from 99 to 156.
Seattle’s proposed heroin safe zone would
be a safe consumption site, different from
a methadone clinic (Seattle already has those).
At the safe zone, heroin addicts would use
drugs under medical supervision, hopefully
lowering rates of fatal overdose and transmission
of diseases from dirty needles.
They would also have opportunities to receive
addiction treatment.
The idea of a safe consumption site isn’t
brand new, and it wouldn’t make heroin legal.
The Heroin Task force, formed by Mayor Ed
Murray and King County Executive Dow Constantine,
is calling for a radical rethink of how the
city interacts with heroin addicts, many of
whom are also homeless.
(Murray is further proposing an improved homeless
shelter to welcome addicts off the streets.)
Of course, this is a pretty controversial
idea.
Opponents have some valid questions, perhaps
the most obvious being “hey, isn’t giving
people a place to do drugs, as well as the
equipment to do it,
essentially enabling their addiction?”
Fortunately, that doesn’t seem to be the
case.
There’s fairly compelling evidence that
creating safe consumption sites
can have tangible benefits.
Vancouver, for instance, is home to a 13 year
old safe-injection area called Insite, where
no overdose deaths have occurred.
Insite has been the subject of multiple peer-reviewed
studies indicating the site has saved lives,
reduced disease transmission and brought more
addicts into treatment programs.
The goal of these enterprises is to keep addicts
alive long enough to enter treatment, while
reducing the social impact addicts can have
on the surrounding community, such as leaving
dirty needles in alleyways and public parks.
Seattle hasn’t officially signed off on
creating this sort of site yet, and there
are some difficult questions to tackle before
anything like this opens.
In country where citizens spend billions of
dollars buying drugs and governments spend
billions attempting to squash the trade,
is it time to reassess how all that money could be spent?
Or is this just enabling people, as opponents
suggest, and accelerating the epidemic it
was designed to stop?
And one last thing: if you or a loved one
are currently looking for a way to escape
addiction, please take a moment to check out
the information at the end of this video.
There are phone numbers you can call, websites
you can visit, and places you can go for help.
Most importantly, there are people who care
about you.
You can be free from addiction, and your life
is worth the effort.
Let me know what you think, and remember,
if you’d like to learn more about everything
from opium to to the ozone layer and beyond,
head over to now.howstuffworks.com.
