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... Despite the attempts made by the American and Canadian government to cease this epidemic, the problem has not been solved. ... Not only are innocent residents of the damaged area being affected by measures that the addicts are taking, but the addicts themselves are forced into terrible living conditions therefore easily acquiring infections, viruses and even deadly diseases. In the recent past, the Vancouver municipal government has looked into alternative ways of fighting the war on drugs; among the proposals is a very controversial program known as harm reduction and safe injection sites. These harm reduction programs have been implemented in other countries, specifically Switzerland and Germany. If Vancouver were to adopt these programs it would reduce drug use and harm to individuals and communities from the sale and use of illicit substances. ... This method is based on four key approaches: prevention, treatment, harm reduction and enforcement. ... The government has assigned most of its resources to enforcement, and less emphasis on prevention; they have unfortunately paid very little attention to treatment and harm reduction. The result of this imbalance is that the problem of addiction is not being addressed; the addicts are simply being pushed from one location of the city to another through police arrests.
There are currently a small number of treatment and harm reduction programs such as DEYAS (Downtown Eastside Youth Activities Society) and one semi-illegal safe injection site which provide services such as needle exchanges in which drug addicts are given new syringes in exchange for previously used needles. ... This program has proved to greatly reduce the number of diseases carried through dirty needles; however it does not address the problem of addiction itself.
In order to figure out what methods were needed to address the problem of drug addiction, the city of Vancouver commissioned Drug Policy Coordinator Donald MacPherson to travel to Germany, Switzerland and the Netherlands. These countries have had the same problems in the past that Vancouver currently bears, but have created new programs to combat the problem which have so far proved to be quite successful. ... MacPherson attended was the 10th International Conference on the Reduction of Drug Related Harm in Geneva, Switzerland. ... MacPherson,
“The Swiss are very proud of what they have accomplished and delight in sharing with others the comprehensive system of care that they have developed over the past 15 years to deal with both health aspects of drug use and public order issues related to the illicit drug market in Switzerland.
Approximate Word count = 1807
Approximate Pages = 7.2
(250 words per page double spaced)
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