Showing posts with label harm reduction. Show all posts
Showing posts with label harm reduction. Show all posts
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Needle exchange kit from 2008. Tourniquet, cotton balls, cooker, condom, sterile water, alcohol swabs, needles of different gauges. Tom Huffman.[/caption]
For eight years the City of Abbotsford has dug in its heels and drawn the line against harm reduction services being offered within its city limits -- services such as needle exchange programs, medical marijuana dispensaries, or safe injection sites such as Vancouver's very successful, life-saving, Insite program.
The city appears to have changed its mind. According to a news release by the Pivot Legal Society, last night Abbotsford City Council, following a public hearing, voted to remove the eight-year-old references to "harm reduction" in their zoning bylaw; references specifically included back in 2005 to prohibit harm-reduction services in any zone of the City of Abbotsford.
According to the by-law, harm reduction use included:
Removing this language from the zoning by-law now opens the way for lifesaving harm reduction services to be legally offered within the city, such as the needle exchange program which the Fraser Health Authority has previously proposed for Abbotsford in its Harm Reduction Service Plan of 2012.
That harm reduction plan, which was pointedly predicated on the elimination of the by-law restrictions proposed a fixed-site and mobile needle exchange system -- Harm Reduction Supplies Distribution Program (HRDSP) -- including outreach services, designed in consultation with area stakeholders including drug users themselves.
Needle exchange kit from 2008. Tourniquet, cotton balls, cooker, condom, sterile water, alcohol swabs, needles of different gauges. Tom Huffman.[/caption]For eight years the City of Abbotsford has dug in its heels and drawn the line against harm reduction services being offered within its city limits -- services such as needle exchange programs, medical marijuana dispensaries, or safe injection sites such as Vancouver's very successful, life-saving, Insite program.
The city appears to have changed its mind. According to a news release by the Pivot Legal Society, last night Abbotsford City Council, following a public hearing, voted to remove the eight-year-old references to "harm reduction" in their zoning bylaw; references specifically included back in 2005 to prohibit harm-reduction services in any zone of the City of Abbotsford.
According to the by-law, harm reduction use included:
- the growing, production, manufacture, sale, distribution and trade of drugs listed in Schedule 1 of the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act, including cannabis marijuana, or any by-product of cannabis marijuana, or any substance held out to be cannabis marijuana;
- Methadone treatment clinics and dispensing facilities, except where administered by a Provincially registered pharmacist;
- Needle exchanges, mobile dispensing vans, safe injection sites, and any other similar uses.
Removing this language from the zoning by-law now opens the way for lifesaving harm reduction services to be legally offered within the city, such as the needle exchange program which the Fraser Health Authority has previously proposed for Abbotsford in its Harm Reduction Service Plan of 2012.
That harm reduction plan, which was pointedly predicated on the elimination of the by-law restrictions proposed a fixed-site and mobile needle exchange system -- Harm Reduction Supplies Distribution Program (HRDSP) -- including outreach services, designed in consultation with area stakeholders including drug users themselves.
The Vancouver Coastal Health authority has been testing the health benefits of giving crack cocaine users smoking kits. Between December 2011 and November 2012, 65,000 such kits were freely distributed in the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver, to 4,213 crack smokers, at a cost of $118,000 CDN, according to a several reports, including this Vancouver Courier item. Now they're crunching the numbers and looking at the results.
Vancouver Coastal Health is telling the media that the 13 month program met it's harm reduction goals, reducing both burns to crack smokers, and reliance on used smoking equipment -- without increasing drug activity.
Knee-jerk conservatives may blanch at what they see as another example of lefties enabling the druggie lifestyle, but that couldn't be farther from the truth. "Harm reduction" means reducing the harm drug users do to themselves, and -- this is an important point -- reducing the harm drug users do to the society at large. Reducing the sharing of drug-taking equipment, is meant to have far-reaching social benefits:
Vancouver Coastal Health is telling the media that the 13 month program met it's harm reduction goals, reducing both burns to crack smokers, and reliance on used smoking equipment -- without increasing drug activity.
Knee-jerk conservatives may blanch at what they see as another example of lefties enabling the druggie lifestyle, but that couldn't be farther from the truth. "Harm reduction" means reducing the harm drug users do to themselves, and -- this is an important point -- reducing the harm drug users do to the society at large. Reducing the sharing of drug-taking equipment, is meant to have far-reaching social benefits:
- Reducing the transmission of infectious diseases among drug users.
- Reducing the number of drug addicts who become chronic health care cases,
- Reducing the risk of drug users spreading infectious diseases to the general population.
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