Safe Consumption Sites Reduce The Stress on Hospitals and Emergency Departments

Jeffrey A. SingerI wrote previously about a secret safe consumption site that has been providing services in an undisclosed location since 2014. The harm reduction organization operating it has agreed to share its data with researchers providing the researchers keep the name and location of the site confidential. This is because the federal “Crack House Statute” makes safe consumption sites illegal in the U.S.The researchers published theirfirst report in 2017. They reported that in the site ’s first 2 years of operation there were 2,574 injections among more than 100 participants, most of whom were injecting heroin at the time. There were two overdoses that were reversed by staff. There were no violent incidents, and the site was well ‐​accepted by the surrounding community.The research team publishedfollow up data in the New England Journal of Medicine in July 2020. There were 10,514 injections through 2019, with 33 overdoses over the 5 ‑year period—all of which were reversed. They reported that the types of drugs changed over that period, with combinations of opioids and stimulants comprising 5 percent of injections in 2014 and 60 percent of injections in 2019.Last week, in theJournal of General Internal Medicine, the researchers provided insight into the site ’s effect on emergency department and hospital utilization. They found that facility users were 27 percent less likely to visit emergency departments. Facility users had 54 percent fewe...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - Category: American Health Authors: Source Type: blogs