Drug
addiction is a huge problem that that people struggle with all over the
world. There is a place called InSite in
downtown Vancouver where street addicts can come and safely use their drug of
choice. There are twelve booths located
in this facility and it opens at ten in the morning and closes at four in the
morning every day. About eight hundred
people come in and out and use the services everyday so it is serving a good
purpose. Every drug addict that comes to
this facility has an official alias to protect their identity and to keep them
safe. Someone might question why they
need “safety” when they are using drugs which are inflicting harm on
themselves. At the end of the day they
are still human beings and they still have feelings and emotions whether on
drugs or not. There is always medical
staff on hand in case anyone overdoses and to also help them find veins to
use. It is difficult for specifically
drug addicts who have been using for a long period of time to find decent veins
to use. The medical staff helps them find
veins in a safer way then if they were in the street or another unsafe
place. Although Vancouver is a nice
place to live the police have stated that it has over five thousand intravenous
drug addicts. It may seem like a
contradiction but many drug addicts use this resource and it helps maintain
their lives. InSite offers a place to use
drugs but it also gives addicts clean needles which in turn decreases the rate
of HIV, hepatitis C and more. If these
drug addicts were in the street using drugs they would use dirty water
surrounded by unhealthy areas and possibly sharing dirty needles as well. Vancouver had the highest rate of HIV of the
developed world in 1997 and this is one solution to help decrease that
rate. This is definitely a global issue
but also a moral issue in some people’s point of view. InSite is sustained with
Canadian taxpayers but many have issues with this idea of helping and allowing
drug addicts to continue to use drugs. On
the other hand the Canadian government wants to prevent higher medical costs’
in the future by allowing drug addicts a safer place to use drugs. Although the majority of government officials
are against this facility they have still been allowed to stay open in a long
battle in court. The approved to keep
the facility open because it allows drug addicts the same health care benefits
that regular, non- drug addicts receive.
Providing equal access to medical care is something that every citizen
is supposed to have and this was the court’s reasoning. There are several injection sites located in
Switzerland, Germany, Spain, Norway, and Australia. Although the best thing to do is to abstain
from drugs altogether, many people have been using drugs for years and just can’t
seem to get clean. For those people
places like InSite is their best option at staying somewhat healthy while being
addicted to drugs.
Antiqua Thurston 4/11/13 9:25
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