Rhode Island set to be first state to pilot safe injection sites for drug users
An example of the clean utensils that would be supplied to inject drugs.
November 5, 2021
Rhode Island is the first state to introduce safe injection sites, where addicts can go to get their drugs tested for Fentanyl and can get clean needles to do the illegal drugs. On top of all that, Rhode Islanders can do the illegal drugs inside of the safe injection sites, where trained people are equipped with Narcan incase of an overdose. Honestly, I think the state wants to do more harm reduction, but it feels like they’re going so far to the point where it’s just enabling addicts. It probably does lower the overdose rate, but it’s just making these hard drugs that ruin peoples lives okay.
There are many people who are pro safe injection sites that want less strict criminal penalties for Fentanyl related drugs, even though around 40% of all drugs tested for Fentanyl have a deadly dose in only 2 milligrams. The synthetic opioid produces a similar effect to morphine, but it’s 100 times stronger. Overdose caused by Fentanyl may be the leading cause of accidental death in America, but that doesn’t mean that we should just give up and let people who are selling Fentanyl and causing this overdose spike get off without getting a minimum sentence. There needs to be more punishment for the dealer, not the user, but the drugs users are using are still illegal and making a safe space for them to use these drugs is just enabling them.
The people running this project say that they can provide an access point to other services like housing, medical care and treatment. But how many users will truly use those other services when they have a place where they can do drugs with no legal consequences? At that point, the state should just make the drugs legal, so they could at least get the tax money from it. This space will only help keep overdose numbers down, but those people need real help, not a safe space to use those drugs.
Space to do those drugs is not helping; it’s just prolonging other problems. Prolonging those problems will just make them worse and create a bigger problem that will have to be fixed. The problem is that the number of people using drugs could increase because there would be no legal penalty for doing drugs, and sometimes that is all it takes for some people to not do drugs.
Is drug addiction just at a point where it’s so normal that we are just accepting it? Instead of changing it, are we just going to try to help keep people from overdosing on the drugs that they chose to use?
Anthony Burcham • Nov 10, 2021 at 3:05 pm
This opinion piece seems to be contradictory to a previous article by the same writer. However maybe the student life article was more of an assignment than their actual opinion. https://nvhsecho.com/5132/student-life/how-students-and-teachers-can-help-students-who-have-mental-health-issues/
The stigma around mental health at Neuqua is clearly pretty bad considering even some who advocate for de-stigmatizing mental health, dont want to consider addiction as being a part of that.
Addicts are mentally ill. Addicts aren’t evil. Addicts deserve life. Addicts deserve space for them to start their recovery and deserve a place where harm reduction can take place. Addicts aren’t ‘choosing’ to do drugs, theyre addicted. A big cause of overdose is folks staying sober but relapsing due to the nature of addiction. They use the amount they would have before and die. I dont think its unreasonable to offer harm reduction to those who dont feel safe quitting.
Addicts are humans and deserve to be treated as such.