At the end of January, Seattle officials approved two of the nation’s first “safe injection sites” for illegal drug users.

This means that in Seattle — where over the span of one year, heroin overdoses rose by 58 percent — illegal drug users will have a place to inject with clean needles, under medical supervision and in the presence of life-saving overdose drugs.

This also means that the constant debate of what’s right and what’s wrong just got new kindling to add to its fire.

The sites, which have been in place in Canada and Europe for some time, are a topic of great debate. Illegal drug use and addiction in general carry a stigma and approval of these sites is not unanimous.

Oppositions of these programs range from worries about local business near the sites to monetary concerns. However, the most common rebuttal against providing this preventative service is that it enables drug users’ unhealthy addictions.

San Francisco, a city with talks of a safe injection site as well, is not unlike Syracuse and Seattle. The mayor of the city, Ed Lee, is himself opposed.

“We have a vigorous disagreement over allowing people to inject heroin and meth, to literally destroy their bodies and their minds, in a city-funded shelter, as some have proposed,” he is quoted saying in a San Francisco Chronicle article.

While it is true that these sites provide users with injection materials, they also offer them the option of getting rehabilitative help — if users so choose it.

Syracuse University Professor James Byrne of the Falk College Department of Public Health said in an email: “Several European countries have tried offering clean needles and clean shooting sites as an approach to reducing community health risks and have found that the use of safe shooting sites by injecting drug users is often the first step towards seeking treatment and a return to ‘normal’ society.”

Byrne additionally noted that interventions such as these could also reduce health risks for the community itself by reducing the amount of dirty needles encountered on the streets.

It’s called the theory of “harm reduction,” and it’s a common public health practice. The goal is to reduce harm in any amount. So if a drug user chooses to stop use altogether and check into rehab, that’s a win. But if a drug user chooses to use only five times a day instead of the usual six, that’s a win, too. It’s a much more practical method of dealing with unhealthy behavior. If we have the option to reduce the number of deadly overdoses and rates of HIV and Hepatitis C transmission through the use of these programs, we should. Some success is better than none at all.

It’s not only the West Coast that’s contemplating preventative measures to combat high opioid overdoses. The opioid epidemic is one that affects the whole country. The CDC reports opioids were involved in 33,091 deaths in 2015 and the number of opioid overdoses quadrupled since 1999. Drug overdoses now kill more people in the United States than car accidents.

It is clear that something must be done and that Seattle is on the right track. Here in Syracuse, we have made great strides, especially for a city of this size.

A 2016 County Health Rankings report found that Onondaga County has a higher drug overdose rate than the national and state average. In response to this, Syracuse has several community health centers with the goal of providing preventative health services to those in need, illegal drug users included.

ACR Health located on West Genesee Street runs several syringe exchange locations throughout the city. They also offer risk reduction counseling, HIV/STD testing, safe sex supplies, substance use programs and a variety of other social services. Additionally the facility offers training on administering Naloxone — the prescription drug that prevents an opioid overdose from becoming fatal and is often used at safe injection sites, which Syracuse does not yet have.

There has been talk of creating such sites in New York State, with Ithaca having the most traction of any city. Syracuse however would greatly benefit from this trend as well. The AIDS Institute of the New York State Department of Health estimates that the NYS syringe exchange programs may be responsible for at least a 50 percent and possibly as much as a 75 percent decline in rates of new HIV infection.

So to dispute those who lean toward using the word “enable,” the statistics tell us everything. These programs and sites work and Syracuse public health advocates should look to Seattle’s success as an affirmation that their goal is on the right direction.

Renata Husted is a senior public health major. Her column appears weekly. You can email her at rfhusted@syr.edu.

Published on February 8, 2017 at 11:08 pm