To reduce the over-dose related death and other drug related risk behaviors a committee in Philadelphia, USA has recommended the opening of safe consumption sites where people can consume drugs they have obtained elsewhere under the observation of trained staff. I think, it may reduce over dose related death but definitely will increase the risk of increasing number of drug abused. What is your opinion?
Hello Harasit Kumar Paul
Supervised consumption rooms have been operating for many years in a variety of jurisdictions. There is no evidence of any significant impact on per-capita rates of drug use resulting from these programs.
See;
"A 2014 review of 75 studies concluded such places promote safer injection conditions, reduce overdoses and increase access to health services. Supervised injection sites were associated with less outdoor drug use, and they did not appear to have any negative impacts on crime or drug use"
There are quite a few links to relevant published studies in this article;
https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2018/09/07/645609248/whats-the-evidence-that-supervised-drug-injection-sites-save-lives
See also;
" While there is a strong need for rigorous research on the advantages and disadvantages of SCSs, it should be noted that many SCSs have been around for 15 to 30 years and have survived multiple changes in local and national governments. Of course, persistence doesn’t imply effectiveness; yet, it seems unlikely that these programs—which were initially controversial in many places—would have such longevity if they had serious adverse consequences for their clients or for their communities. During an emergency such as the present opioid crisis in the U.S., the absence of a large down-side risk for a program that has strong face validity may be sufficient for some decision makers to proceed, rather than waiting for high-quality evidence of the net effects from multiple sites demonstrating positive effects. Indeed, the American Medical Association has recently called for SCS pilot studies. If attempts to implement SCSs in the U.S. are not blocked, we hope a strong research component is incorporated into these efforts."
https://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/working_papers/WR1200/WR1261/RAND_WR1261.pdf
" Conclusions: The causal evidence for favorable outcomes of supervised consumption sites (SCS) is minimal, but there appears to be little basis for concern about adverse effects..."
Article Supervised Consumption Sites: A Nuanced Assessment of the Ca...
Overview of the International Literature;
"This research did not support the notion that drug use increases in response to Safe Injection Facility (SIF) establishment; on the contrary, SIF participation was shown to contribute to drug cessation."
http://www.drugconsumptionroom-international.org/images/pdf/overview_international_literature_dcr.pdf
I hope these links are useful.
Kind regards,
Paul.
I am in complete agreement with your Paul - there is no evidence that supervised consumption rooms increase the prevalence of drug use. These facilities are for people with established drug use problems who will continue to use drugs, often in high risk environments. The absence of the facilities will not either promote the cessation of their drug use nor would it encourage initiation of drug use amongst others.
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