San Frans Drug Addict Plan: Give Them A Room To Shoot Up In
Not just any room, no sir, this one has nurses supervising them! The reasoning behind it is to cut down on the amount of deaths from overdoses in the city. The statistics on those are staggering; Drug overdoses represented about one of every seven emergency calls handled by city paramedics between July 2006 and July 2007, according to San Francisco Fire Department Capt. Niels Tangherlini. At the same time, the number of deaths linked to overdoses has declined from a high of about 160 in 1995 to 40 in 2004, he said. So you can see why they would need such a facility! It is to be patterned after Vancouver’s InSite program. I can see why:
Thomas Kerr, a University of British Columbia researcher who has studied the program, said that while 800 overdoses have occurred on the premises, none resulted in death because of the medical supervision provided at InSite. His research also has shown an increase in addicts seeking drug treatment and a decrease in abandoned syringes, needle-sharing, drug-related crime and other problems since the clinic opened, he said.
October 19, 2007 - 10:57 AM on October 19th, 2007
[...] Read it all here [...]
October 19, 2007 - 11:21 AM on October 19th, 2007
[...] Check it out! While looking through the blogosphere we stumbled on an interesting post today.Here’s a quick excerpt Not just any room, no sir, this one has nurses supervising them! … , Liberals, &, Democrats, SCHIP, Associated, Press, Google, News [...]
October 19, 2007 - 11:52 AM on October 19th, 2007
Ahhh…those San Francisco values. What the U.S. could look like if the SP’s have their way. I don’t even want to envision what we’ll look like if we are forced into Shia law.
October 19, 2007 - 11:58 AM on October 19th, 2007
3, first off, BonBon, you’d have SFL begging for asylum in some country where the Islamofacists haven’t taken over. Another thing, you’d have the TransAmerica tower painted green and loud speakers for the calls to prayers to Allah.
Of course the SF police force would be dead from trying to treat an Islamofacist invasion as a law enforcement matter and they’d be replace by the Taliban group that roamed Afghanistan beating and killing people for having Nintendos and satellite dishes.
October 19, 2007 - 12:12 PM on October 19th, 2007
Personally, this policy is just the toe in the door. The goal is to have the taxpayer pay to keep the addicts safe and high. I wouldn’t mind if they were given permanent overdoses. The addicts would never know or care. The Democrat will vote for them in perpetuity.
October 19, 2007 - 12:38 PM on October 19th, 2007
A very scarey description there PCD. Unfortunately it’s probably dead on accurate.
One question remains though. When you enable druggies to take their drugs, etc., with taxpayers money, what happens when there are no taxpayers left to pay?
October 19, 2007 - 12:56 PM on October 19th, 2007
You get druggies breaking in your house demanding to be “paid”.
October 19, 2007 - 05:53 PM on October 19th, 2007
Naturally, I think this is a great idea.
October 19, 2007 - 06:08 PM on October 19th, 2007
You are exasperating SFL, but I still love you
October 19, 2007 - 07:09 PM on October 19th, 2007
While I’m not necessarily in favor of tax payer dollars being used in this fashion, it will certainly be more cost effective than running an ambulance down to whichever back alley or flop house the addicts have OD’d in this week. It should also reduce the cost of the various and sundry tests that go along with an autopsy on every John Doe addict that ODs.
There are programs in some European cities wherein addicts are given just enough heroin to keep them from going into withdrawals on a daily basis at government run clinics. They get a small shot in the morning, go to work, and get a small shot at the end of the day to tide them over until morning. It’s more effective than Methadone and allows those addicts who want to be somewhat productive members of society do so. Note: they do not allow the addicts to get high, only have enough to keep them from going into withdrawal. Addicts who don’t comply with the rules of the program are thrown out of it. It’s basically an ongoing treatment plan for their addiction. I’m sure none of the addicts are working as brain surgeons or anything, but at least they’re able to do something to help support themselves instead of being a total blight on society. There are new treatment drugs on the market that block opium receptors in the brain meaning that no matter how much opiate the person does, there will be no effect. If I remember correctly, they pair these drugs with a 24 hour induced sleep wherein the body is detoxified thereby relieving the addict from the pains of withdrawal. By flushing all opiates from the body, and treating the addict with drugs that negate the effects of the opiate, they have had great success curing the addictions.
Were it not for the fact that many of these addicts have no desire to end their addiction, I’d go for the nurses shooting them up with something to knock them out and then slip them the anti opiate treatments.
October 19, 2007 - 10:25 PM on October 19th, 2007
And as the old antidrug TV ad used to say WHY DO YOU THINK THEY CALL IT DOPE? Thats becuase HANOI ON THE BAY is run by dopes
October 20, 2007 - 03:58 PM on October 20th, 2007
Actually with the amount of drugs we seize on the border with Mexico on an annual basis, actually making the drugs shouldn’t cost the taxpayers a dime. Think how much that’ll cut into the drug cartel’s profits. Everytime we seize it, we turn it over to their prospective customers for free. Pretty soon every junkie in the US will be lining up to tell the police which dealer is holding that week in exchange for his free daily shots. Eventually the dealers won’t be able to stay in business because of the soaring costs and reduced marketability. As more and more dealers are arrested, the distribution networks will be disrupted, and more product will be seized because of the inexperience of the smugglers and dealers. As more product is seized and given to the addicts free, the cost of production will rise at the same time as demand decreases. Eventually the law of diminishing returns come into effect. They’ll still smuggle in drugs for their more affluent clientele, but only the most experienced and capable smugglers will be able to escape detection. As these smugglers have to bring in smaller bundles, the flow will be substantially decreased. What a way to fight the war on drugs. Take the drugs from the cartels and distribute them free to the addicts. No more registered addicts going to jail, reduced drug related crime, and a better capacity to control the drugs on the streets.