Harm reduction is one small part of the whole and does have its place somewhere.
In the age of HIV/HEPC offering clean needles/needle exchanges to help stop the spread seems normal. This wasn’t put into place to stop one from using and it wasn’t going to make anyone use. Couldn’t it even be said that this might have had some positive impact on the families of addicts and on the public in general.
Wet houses which we do have in the states, also were not put into place to stop anyone from using. But wet houses have also shown that while some have reduced intake, most have not. Occupants of these homes are still dying and it is rare if one stops drinking, but a few have so … I think the same result would be found with any safe using site for heroin addicts or with a heroin dispensary if it was set up the same way, to provide support medically and mentally.
These are societal and economic based harm reduction programs.
When talking NJ and the availability of Narcan. This is a whole different issue and a man made one at that. Once the formula changed for oxy to make it harder to abuse heroin use rose 300 percent across the board fairly quickly and is still rising and will continue to rise as the classifications change on a pharmaceutical level for other pills in the class.
I still wonder did anyone really think the change would stop a person from using.
Five years ago most pills were still dispensed in doctor’s offices fairly freely and readily available on the streets. And 10 years ago even more so and frankly no one was really caring about how many addicts were od-ing in the Camden area then with heroin. Oxy was already killing a lot of kids then, but not to any degree that the heroin is now. Narcan in NJ now is a reaction to the new state created from the oxy change/pill regulations and because of the more prominent areas seeing a huge rise in overdoses and deaths from those overdoses. No one wants to talk about how many were already pill users or addicts in general before. While it seems a bit weird in this day and age not to have narcan in all ambulances from the get go and yes some areas didn’t. I don’t find it bad for it to be in police cars but I don’t know how I feel about it being in homes. Now the price spike … well is that normal commerce, high demand meaning higher prices? Or could it be a greed thing, preying on the fear of?
My husband is a recovering heroin addict. Would I keep narcan in my home if he went back out, no. I’ve thought about this and even if I hung around a bit to watch I know 100 percent I cannot save him. I cannot give him any will to live. He must want to live because he just does. He knows the risks of using heroin. He also is well aware of the benefits of not using heroin. I can’t even imagine anyone not knowing heroin’s truth. Heroin has always proved it can and does take the lives of those who venture in.
The eliminating stigma comments maybe over time publically views will change more, but in an addicts head that stigma is much harder to address no matter how well the person is so called treated.