Street Roots • March 18-24, 2016
E d ito ria l
It’s time for change in the fight against heroin
Page 3
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If you would like
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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.
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Executive D irecto r Israel Bayer
israel@streetroots.org
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