“It generally seems to be good for public health and social order outcomes, in the same way that it does elsewhere in the world.” There has not been a single death from anyone having an overdose at the site,” said Peter Davidson, an associate professor in the UC San Diego Department of Medicine who helped evaluate the program. “There isn’t an increase in crime in the neighborhood where the site is located. Such programs have been credited with preventing deaths, reducing the risk of HIV and other infectious diseases, and cutting back on public nuisances and hazards such as discarded needles. Scores of “supervised consumption” or “safe consumption” sites exist legally around the globe, including in the Netherlands, Germany and Canada. “That’s something out of a movie or something!” Latham said, leaning back in disbelief. A safe, supervised place to do drugs? A staffer there to save someone who overdosed? When Melvin Latham heard about the idea being aired in Sacramento, it sounded like an impossible dream. The latest California bill, SB 57, envisions them as “a hygienic space supervised by trained staff” where people can use “preobtained drugs,” get sterile supplies and connect to treatment for substance use disorder. Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) and other lawmakers are pushing to allow San Francisco, Oakland and the city and county of Los Angeles to approve entities to run such programs. Jerry Brown, who vetoed a bill to try out such sites in San Francisco and said that “enabling illegal and destructive drug use will never work.” The idea was shot down three years ago by Gov. In California, it would be the most dramatic step to date for government and health officials in pursuing the philosophy of harm reduction, which seeks pragmatic ways to reduce the harmful effects of drug use. As the numbers have soared, many experts, advocates and lawmakers have promoted an idea still fresh to the United States: giving people a safe place to inject drugs under supervision. She relishes the idea of handing over that paper and saying, “Hey - I may be a drug user, but I got a certificate.”īut above all, Mendoza said, “I hope to live longer.”ĭeaths from drug overdoses have surged during the pandemic, claiming more than 90,000 lives last year across the country, according to federal data. She wants to get a certificate to prove herself to employers, maybe become a phlebotomist or a nurse. She wants to get off heroin, which she first turned to decades ago after a heartbreak. Diamond Mendoza rolled up the sleeve of her shirt - a yellow tee decorated with an exuberant rendering of the Mona Lisa - to show the scars of abscesses that had been lanced and healed.
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