Canadians volunteer to help sick heroin addicts shoot up
Discussion
Vancouver — Addicts, crippled and blinded by their drug use and too sick to shoot themselves up, will be helped by a volunteer team of users to get high safely.
Forty members of the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users will be patrolling the Downtown Eastside, a slum and open drug market that teems with disease, offering injection education and assistance.
“Most of the stats show people who are incapable of injecting themselves or have a hard time have the highest rate of HIV,” said Diane Tobin, the new and first female president of the users' harm reduction group.
VANDU, which is wholly run by volunteers, has 12 members trained and walking the alleys now. Ms. Tobin said they hope to get a room where people can also come to them.
“There's a huge need out there,” said Ms. Tobin, who is back on heroin to deal with withdrawal from methadone.
“A lot of people can't inject because of blindness, injury, stroke. They're still heroin addicts. They're at the mercy of anybody and a lot of the time they don't use clean needles. It's whatever's in their pockets.”
Women and young injectors are also more likely than other injection drug users to need help injecting.
Health Canada is calling for a change to the law that prevents peers and nurses in the city's sanctioned safe injection site from helping people inject.
Health care workers can only supervise and offer medical assistance if a user hurts themselves and gets sick or overdoses.
If nurses help an addict shoot up, they could be charged with possession or trafficking.
“We need them to help,” said Ms. Tobin.
“And we need more places like the safe injection site. It's so busy now, it's being used all the time and people are sitting on the street, getting people who don't know what they're doing to inject them.”
VANDU is also busy coping with the hot heroin going around the Downtown Eastside.
It has been blamed for a recent cluster of nine overdoses.
Ms. Tobin is trying to spread the word to users to taste their drugs first.
“Good heroin has a bitter taste. The bad stuff has a more chemical taste. Do it with a friend and help each other. Don't do it alone,” she said.
Forty members of the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users will be patrolling the Downtown Eastside, a slum and open drug market that teems with disease, offering injection education and assistance.
“Most of the stats show people who are incapable of injecting themselves or have a hard time have the highest rate of HIV,” said Diane Tobin, the new and first female president of the users' harm reduction group.
VANDU, which is wholly run by volunteers, has 12 members trained and walking the alleys now. Ms. Tobin said they hope to get a room where people can also come to them.
“There's a huge need out there,” said Ms. Tobin, who is back on heroin to deal with withdrawal from methadone.
“A lot of people can't inject because of blindness, injury, stroke. They're still heroin addicts. They're at the mercy of anybody and a lot of the time they don't use clean needles. It's whatever's in their pockets.”
Women and young injectors are also more likely than other injection drug users to need help injecting.
Health Canada is calling for a change to the law that prevents peers and nurses in the city's sanctioned safe injection site from helping people inject.
Health care workers can only supervise and offer medical assistance if a user hurts themselves and gets sick or overdoses.
If nurses help an addict shoot up, they could be charged with possession or trafficking.
“We need them to help,” said Ms. Tobin.
“And we need more places like the safe injection site. It's so busy now, it's being used all the time and people are sitting on the street, getting people who don't know what they're doing to inject them.”
VANDU is also busy coping with the hot heroin going around the Downtown Eastside.
It has been blamed for a recent cluster of nine overdoses.
Ms. Tobin is trying to spread the word to users to taste their drugs first.
“Good heroin has a bitter taste. The bad stuff has a more chemical taste. Do it with a friend and help each other. Don't do it alone,” she said.
I disagree.
This is a brilliant idea. Best to use the purest heroin you can though, that should get rid of a few of these individuals.
Better still, import this into Britain. Entire inner cities are full of these wasteful leaches on Society, who incredibly & by virtue of the fact that they are unable to work due to their own illegal & criminal activities, are given Incapacity Benefit which results in them being paid MORE than those who are genuinely unable to find work.
Only in Britain...................
This is a brilliant idea. Best to use the purest heroin you can though, that should get rid of a few of these individuals.
Better still, import this into Britain. Entire inner cities are full of these wasteful leaches on Society, who incredibly & by virtue of the fact that they are unable to work due to their own illegal & criminal activities, are given Incapacity Benefit which results in them being paid MORE than those who are genuinely unable to find work.
Only in Britain...................
wolves_wanderer said:
“Good heroin"
Interesting choice of words there. I think a load of 100% pure heroin should be made available to all addicts and let Darwin do his work personally.
Good plan, at least that way they'll know exactly how much to use and be sure it's not cut with brick dust or whatever shite the dealer had to hand.Gassing Station | The Pie & Piston Archive | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff