Photo by ahmetturanince
Author Note: I wrote this post for the purpose of
the assignment, I do not personally agree with the
argument expressed below.
Safe injection sites have been popping up around British Columbia over the years. Providing a well lit and clean place for drug users to inject their drugs. It seems like a great concept, but how much good does it actually do for the community, and should the government be funding them?
The downtown East Side in Vancouver has been overcome with drugs and crime for years, the idea behind the safe injection site was to reduce the risk of harm. However, an article by CTV states that, "The number of overdose deaths in Vancouver and the Downtown Eastside has increased since Insite started up." The article also suggests that the crime rate has gone down but only because of the increased police presence, not because of the facility itself. According to this article "a large percentage of downtown east side drug users will rarely, if ever, use the facilities and services". So if the facilitates are hardly having an impact on overdoses, and drug users consider the injection sites a "hassle", perhaps our government shouldn't be paying 3 million dollars a year for it. That money could be going towards rehab facilities, towards those who are trying to overcome their addiction instead of encouraging and supporting those who still continue to use illicit drugs.
Some suggest that perhaps drugs such as heroin should become legal in Canada, as a way to ensure that the drugs are "clean", to lower the risk of overdose and cut out fentynal. This seems like a more viable solution than the injection sites; as it stands the government is funding and supporting illegal activity within the walls of the safe injection site. Governments should not be supporting illegal activity. Why would someone do drugs at home and risk getting busted when they can just go to the safe injection site where drug use is done openly and legally.
In this moving article by a mother in Keremeos, BC, she pleads for the community to say no to safe injection sites as it will only enable her son who suffers from addiction, "say no to safe injection sites. They should not be injecting at all. Help give them the chance at recovery in a clinically-staffed facility." The focus and money should be going towards making rehab facilities more accessible and affordable. Another mother argues that, "one of the reasons that addicts quit is they fear overdosing. They fear death. They know that drugs have consequences," (here) and safe injection sites are taking away the fear and the consequences that surround constant drug use. Getting caught by police and the fear of overdose are the main obstacles users face. Her daughter, who suffers from addiction, also stated that the injection sites would only encourage drug use and remove the struggle of having to find a place to use.
The injection sites are just a quick and expensive solution to a very big problem in our country. The government should not be funding the use of illicit drugs but should instead shift towards increasing accessibility to treatment facilities.
Title: I chose my title based on looking up keywords in Google Trends. For example, "injection sites" was more commonly searched than "safe injection sites", and "solution" was more searched than "quick fix", "subsidized" was more popular than "funded". My goal was to have a compelling title.
