DIGNITY FOR DRUG USERS

The city of Montreal has toyed with the idea of hosting the second
safe-injection site in North America, and the proposal gained steam
after an announcement by former Quebec Health Minister Philippe
Couillard last June.

Unfortunately his replacement, Yves Bolduc, has delayed plans with
vague excuses calling for more information and studies.

Insite, operating in Vancouver for the past five years, is currently
the only safe injection site in North America.

Safe injection sites do more than provide shelter for drug users, they
turn the drug debate on its head. By shifting the emphasis to health
care and medical services, safe injection sites create an important
paradigm shift: intravenous drug users are not ingrates or criminals,
they are sick.

Drug users are dealing with an illness that is extremely difficult to
treat without a proper support network. These are people whose
lifestyles fall so far from acceptable societal norms that they fall
victim to judgments that exclude them from rights and privileges that
most people take for granted.

What do the words "drug addict" normally bring to mind? The unwashed,
unshaven man sitting on a street corner yelling incomprehensible
babble to no one in particular may be the most visible sign, but he is
not the only drug addict in our community.

People suffering from prescription drug addictions are provided with
hospitalization, treatment facilities, counseling and sympathy. In a
word: dignity.

Whether they live in glass towers, behind white picket fences or in
dumps, people from all socio-economic backgrounds abuse illegal
drugs-some just have the money to cover up their dirty little habit.

Insite describes those using the centre as "men and women who use more
than one drug; people who experience both addiction and mental
illness; people with a history of trauma; people who are homeless,
live in shelters or live in substandard housing; men and women of
Aboriginal descent; and people who have tried unsuccessfully in the
past to beat their drug addiction."

Injection site users are also the most marginalized and most
vulnerable members of society, unable to support their addictions
safely, they are in no position to provide a safe place to inject
their drugs themselves.

A safe-injection site doesn't provide a direct route to
rehabilitation-that has yet to me discovered-but it is, as proponents
argue, a point of entry into seeking other medical services.

Who can blame disadvantaged drug users? A distrust of the society
that's marginalizing you is only natural, so in providing a
judgment-free facility where those in need can use the services they
need, a trust for medical treatment can be fostered.

A safe injection site is a step further than a needle exchange. Users
are permitted to bring in their own drugs to inject, with no legal
implications for the possession of these drugs. Nurses are on staff to
supervise and prevent complications or death by overdose. Counseling
and rehabilitation services are made available to those seeking them,
but those who aren't ready to accept help are still protected from
doing themselves serious and further harm.