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About Street roots. (Portland, OR) 1998-current | View Entire Issue (March 18, 2016)
Street Roots • March 18-24, 2016 E d ito ria l It’s time for change in the fight against heroin Page 3 Write in If you would like j a » Israel Bayer is the executive director o f Street Roots. You can , tsrad@streetroots.ore o r follow h im on Tivitter @israelbayer. Last week, Street Roots, along with the NAACP of Oregon and the Mental Health Association of Portland, hosted a social justice mayoral forum on police accountability, mental health and homelessness. ' Street Roots asked mayoral candidates Jules Bailey, Ted Wheeler and Sarah Iannarone if they would be open to looking at a safe injection site for drug users in - Portland. All three mayoral candidates at the forum said yes. It was a breath of fresh air. Wait a minute, slow down Israel. What exactly are you talking about? Safe injection sites for drug users are common in Europe, Canada and Australia. The sites offer a D IR E C T O R 'S dedicated space where intravenous drug users DESK can inject previously By Israel Bayer obtained drugs out of public view and under . the supervision of medical professionals. Staff is there to intervene with life-saving measures in the event of an overdose and to . provide further education. Most importantly, staff also provides counseling and a ; connection to resources when users are ready to quit - and quit they do. One study of Vancouver B.C.’s injection .. facility, Insite, found that before the s tu d y - ,, period ended, 23 percent of respondents had stopped injecting drugs, and another 57 percent had entered treatm ent The reality is that without a safe injection site, restrooms around the city are being used to inject hidden from view. Ask any business owner downtown. A report on opiate trends released inr December by Multnomah County notes that over a two-year period in 2013 and 2014, American Medical Response ambulances responded to nearly l;200 non-fatal opiate overdoses. Of those responses 254 were in public areas, 105 were at local businesses, 47 were at bars and 20 were in: public parks. In Ithaca, N.Y., a 29syear-old mayor named Svante Myrick is rolling out a four-tiered strategy that includes working with drug users to create a new model of prevention, treatment, a harm-reduction and law enforcement strategy and lastly, a supervised injection site. It’s about time. “My father was a drug addict He split from the family when I was 5, 6 years old,” Mayor Myrick told the Associated Press. “I have watched for 20 years this system that just doesn’t work. We can’t wait anymore for the federal government. We have people shooting up in alleys. In bathroom stalls. And too many of them are dying.” Groups around the country,, including in San Francisco, Seattle and New York City, are currently exploring opening a safe " injection site for drug users. Portland should be too. It’s time for the Multnomah County Health Department and county leaders to rise to the occasion. Historically, the county has said it’s a matter of both money and political will. Fair ? enough. We understand the complexity of the situation r- especially knowing how hard health officials and others work to maintain needle exchange programs to help curb th e rate of hepatitis C and HIV among drug ‘ users. We continue to take steps in the right direction by making naloxone, a drug that can reverse a heroin overdose, more available to th e general public and by creating biohazard drop boxes in public spaces. Just this month, the health department installed two such drop boxes on the Eastbank Esplanade and under the Burnside Bridge to help dispose of used needles in downtown. Can we get four more please? We should all know by now that the war on drugs in American is à failure. Street Roots’ Emily Green reported in August of last year that Multnomah County’s homeless population is hit disproportionately with drug overdoses. “While homeless individuals make up less than 1 percent of the county’s total population, they accounted for 25 percent of heroin-related deaths in 2014. A total of 57 homeless people died with heroin listed as a contributing or primary factor in their death during the past four years.”- / . " I 'm 4 0 y e a rs o ld . I n m y lif e t im e th e a m o u n t o f friends and peers I've lost to heroin overdoses rivals any other form of death combined — more than car crashes, natural causes, cancer, and other illnesses. It's a narrative that many of ns share, especially in the United States." Street Roots reporting also found from 2010 to 2014 there were 344 deaths.where heroin was found present in the bloodstream and categorized as heroin-related death by the state medical examiner. In 2014 alone there were 122 heroin-related deaths in Oregon, 80 of which were in Portland’s tri- county area. Unfortunately, people are dying every day in America of heroin overdoses. I’m 40 years old. In my lifetime the amount of friends and peers I’ve lost to heroin overdoses rivals any other form of death combined — more than car crashes, natural causes, cancer and other illnesses. I t ’s a narrative that many of us share, especially in the United States. The truth is I want my friends and peers to have the support they need to have as many options as possible to both get help and remain healthy — even as they are struggling with an addiction. As a community, we need to frilly commit to changing our approach. The writing is’oh the wall Like it or riot, drug users need a safe place to use drugs. to have something that you’ve written published in our pages, or would like to get involved as a - < '' member of our reporting staff, contact Managing Editor Joanne Zuhl at 503-228-5657, joanne@streetroots.org. We ask that all submissions include the author’s name and contact information, if available. Street Roots 211 N W Davis S t Portiand.O R 97209 5 0 3 -2 2 8 -5 6 5 7 '' - / -7 ' Fax; 503-227-3117 www.streetroots.org www.news.streetroots.org Hours: 7 :3 © $ $ v 3 p.m . Mon.-Fri., 7:30 a,fn .-2 p ,m . S a t and 7:30-11 & ra. Sun. Advertising Interested in advertising in Street Roots? Contact Israel Bayer at israei^streefroots.org Staff Executive D irecto r Israel Bayer israel@streetroots.org Managing Editor ioat'.neZuW joanne@stieevoote.org _ Vender Program Director Cole tfterket cole@streetroots.org Operations D ire c to r Sarah Beecroft Development D irecto r Sarah Cloud Program Assistant Scott Jackson, Jesuit Volunteer D e ve lo p m e n t A s s is t a n t Ann-Dernck Gaillot Reporters Emily Green, Suzanne Zalokar, Ann-Derrick G aillot Sarah' Hansell, Leonora Ko, Jared Paben, Amanda W aidroupe Photographers Diego Diaz, Joe Gfode, Ben Brink Editorial Assistant Monica Kwasnik Canvasser Desmond Hardison Board of Directors Chairman Brad Taylor Vice-Chairman Rachel Langford Treasurer Heather Stadick Secretary Amber Bieiman. Directors Bruce Anderson, Rich Rodgers, Michael Anderson, Leo Rhodes, Nora Coon, Marcus Swift Volunteers Jan Bayer, John Barker, Stacey Heath, Stephanie Holum, Anjait Rathore, Zoe Klfigmann, Haven Herrin, Dan Jones, Rob Shyrock, Dennis Hogan, Tom Wright, Eileen Deerdock, Vince WaWman, Judy Taylor, Karen Allen, Monica McKune, Susan Wolfe, Lucas Hawthorne, Thomas Buell Jr., Jeanie Lunsford, Yasmin Amirsoieymani, Jason Cohen, Tom Ray, Doug Spangle, Susannah Kamala, Jon Raymond, Hilary Smith, Diana Richardson, Cherle Manning If you are interested in volunteering with Street Roots, please submit a volunteer application at streetroots.org/volunteer. D r call -our volunteer coordinator for more information
