While death from drug abuse is certainly an issue that needs to be addressed, is providing a safe location where you can do drugs the ultimate answer? Officials in San Francisco are considering that maybe it is. The subject of providing a “safe injection room” was the topic at a recent symposium held by the city’s health officials. The hope is to somehow reduce San Francisco’s high rate of fatal drug overdoses. I think a symposium on how they’re going to get addicts off drugs through effective drug rehab would be more appropriate.

The only similar facility in North America is in Vancouver. It is 4 years old and an estimated 700 users per day self administer narcotics under the supervision of medical staff. Sixty-five similar facilities exist in 27 cities in 8 countries. None exist in the United States. They obviously consider the goal of getting people off of drugs through effective drug rehab unattainable. So, the lesser goal becomes to keep them alive during their drug use. The question becomes, if using drugs and being an addict becomes so safe, why should they stop? Why go to drug rehab when you can keep taking drugs in relative safety, and legally? And with no one really encouraging you to do otherwise.

San Francisco definitely has a problem. The Director of HIV Prevention for the San Francisco Department of Public Health, Grant Colfax, estimates 11 – 15 thousand intravenous drug users in the city. City paramedics reported that from July 2006 to July 2007, drug overdoses accounted for one in seven emergency calls.

At the safe injection room in Vancouver, 800 overdoses were reported, none of which resulted in death because the facility has medical supervision. San Francisco hopes to decrease its number of deaths from overdose and thinks this may be the answer.

The only truly effective way to permanently reduce the number of overdoses from drug abuse is to do everything possible to prevent drug use before it begins. And, once it has begun, to get the drug user into drug rehab as soon as possible. The only truly safe lifestyle is one without the use of drugs. No safe injection room is going to offer that; rather, it nearly condones the use of drugs with acceptance of the problem. For more information about handling the real problem of drug abuse,contact Drug Rehab Referral to find a California drug rehab program that works for you.

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