Safe injection facilities: Canada’s ethical and legal obligations

ID:	HARP-337
Title:	Safe injection facilities: Canada’s ethical and legal obligations
Source:	Journal of Addiction & Mental Health , v.6(1) Fall’02 pg 20
Parties:
Dispute Resolution Organ:
Year:	2002
Pages:	0
Author(s):
Keywords:	Canada, economic, social, and cultural rights, human rights, law, health, HIV/AIDS, drug
Abstract:	INJECTION DRUG USE PRESENTS A GROWING HEALTH CRISIS FOR Canada. People who inject drugs face serious potential health risks, including overdoses and blood-borne diseases such as HIV/AIDS and hepatitis C. One partial solution is the establishment of “safe injection facilities” (SIFs). At SIFs, drug users are legally able to inject using clean equipment under the supervision of medically trained personnel. SIFs are not “shooting galleries,” which are not legally sanctioned, are often unsafe, do not offer hygienic conditions or sterile equipment and lack access to health services. The drugs are not provided by the facility, nor do staff help administer the drugs. SIF staff help users minimize the risk of overdose, disease or other negative health effects that may result from using unclean equipment and unsafe injecting practices. They provide free sterile equipment, including syringes, alcohol, dry swabs, water, spoons/cookers and tourniquets. SIFs also direct clients to treatment and rehabilitation programs, and operate as primary health care units. The arguments against SIFs are generally ill conceived or overstated, and are outweighed by the likely benefits. One argument claims that SIFs condone or encourage drug use. This claim is based on the false premise that a strict abstinence-oriented approach contains drug use, and that relaxing prohibition would yield greater drug use. In fact, SIFs actually extend the pro-health message of needle exchange programs (NEPs), which are widely recognized as a positive harm reduction measure.
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