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Quoted Text

Safe-injection clinic eyed for drug addicts
The Associated Press

   SAN FRANCISCO — City health officials took steps Thursday toward opening the nation’s first legal safe-injection room, where addicts could shoot up heroin, cocaine and other drugs under the supervision of nurses.
  Hoping to reduce San Francisco’s high rate of fatal drug overdoses, the public health department cosponsored a symposium on the only such facility in North America, a 4-year-old Vancouver site where an estimated 700 users a day selfadminister narcotics under the supervision of nurses.
   “Having the conversation today will help us figure out whether this is a way to reduce the harms and improve the health of our community,” said Grant Colfax, director of HIV prevention for the San Francisco Department of Public Health.
   Organizers of the daylong forum, which also included a coalition of nonprofit health and social-service groups, acknowledge that it could take years to get an injection facility up and running. Along with legal hurdles, such an effort would be almost sure to face political opposition.
   Bertha Madras, deputy director of demand reduction for the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, called San Francisco’s consideration of such a facility “disconcerting” and “poor public policy.”
   “The underlying philosophy is, ’We accept drug addiction, we accept the state of affairs as acceptable,’” Madras said. “This is a form of giving up.”
   Sixty-five similar facilities exist in 27 cities in eight countries, but no other U.S. cities have considered creating one, according to Hilary McQuie, Western director for the Harm Reduction Coalition, a nonprofit that promotes alternative drug treatment methods.
   “If it happens anywhere in the U.S., it will most likely start in San Francisco,” McQuie said. “It really just depends on if there is a political will here. How long it takes for that political will to develop is the main factor.”
   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.  

  
  
  

I say have fun and go kill yourself......no one stops anyone from drinking themselves to death.....so, again--have 'fun' and go kill yourself......if you live on the street or 'play suburbia', and you 'do drugs' you must have some kind of education as to how much, when and how.....I say use what you've learned,,,,you dont need 'medical professionals' to teach you and keep you safe----THAT is your responsibility......

.....however, when you keel over, dont do it on the sidewalk where folks need to walk to get to the market, bars, stewart shops for lotto tickets, adult stores, strip clubs etc....... >