Insight into Insite

nytinsite

Insite is the first legal supervised interjection site in North America.  Located in Vancouver, Canada, people can inject drugs in a safe place that is health focused.  The goal of Insite, which is operated and funded by Vancouver Coastal Health, is to “decrease the adverse health, social and economic consequences of drug use without requiring abstinence from drug use.” (http://www.vch.ca/public-health/harm-reduction/supervised-consumption-sites

In an article published in the New York Times, Patricia Daly, the vice president for public health and the chief medical health officer of Vancouver Coastal Health, discusses topics including the nature of addiction and the philosophy on which Insite operates.   “Harm reduction — helping people even as they use drugs — is needed to keep users alive long enough to give them the chance to be treated. Prevention is also important, but again, there is no simple solution.”  Is it time for other places in Canada and elsewhere to adopt a model akin to Insite?

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