Page 8
News
Street Roots • Nov. 17-23, 2017
UNDER
WATCHFUL
EYES
Insite in Vancouver, B.C., was North America’s first legal supervised consumption space. Within the first 12 weeks o f opening in 2003, Insite was responsible fo r nearly 50 percent reductions in public
injections, improper syringe disposal a nd other injection related litter, according to a study by the Canadian Medical Association. Some U.S. cities are considering opening a sim ilar facility.
News
Street Roots • Nov. 17-23, 2017
Page 9
Safer Spaces Portland is pushing fo r the opening o f a
safe consumption space to m inim ize risks fo r drug users
BY EMILY GREEN
might stand in the way.
SE N IO R STAFF REPORTER
Em ily Green: You were a nurse a t Insite.
How did having a safe consumption space in
Vancouver impact the community there?
A campaign to open a safe consumption
/ % space in Portland has officially
X JUaunched, with members making their
Sh ann on Riley: I saw it personally
first public appearance at an Oregon Health
impact the community in a number of
& Science University event Thursday, Nov.
different ways. First of all, it was a place for
16.
people to come in off the streets, either
The campaign, Safer Spaces Portland, is
away from using alone in private housing, or
just getting its feet off the ground, but
away from using publicly, to come into a
organizers said they hope to build a broad
space that was for them - a medical space,
coalition that includes all stakeholders
that had sterile supplies, that had medical
working together.
professionals. It was a sterile space for
OHSU’s School of Public Health invited
them to use their medicine, where they
campaign members and other proponents of
weren’t at risk for incarceration, or they
a safe consumption space to speak to health
weren’t at risk of rushing and then causing
care professionals at the Lucky Labrador
themselves more harm. A place for them to
Pub on Northwest Quimby Street about how
create community, and build trust with a
these spaces could help prevent fatal drug
medical system that has really left them
overdoses in Portland.
stranded for so long. People who use drugs
“Someone who has
are definitely subject to
overdosed and died from
so much stigma from
"Supervised Infection
opiates does not have a
our larger community,
spaces
are
a
ctu
a
lly
where
chance for treatment,”
and so I would say that
treatm ent begins, se that's
Sam Chapman, Safer
supervised injection
Spaces Portland’s
a place where people
spaces are actually
co-founder and advocacy
can b u ild tha t trust and
where treatment begins,
director, told Street
so that’s1 a place where
have tha t safety«
It's
Roots. Chapman brings .
people can build that
the
place
to
fnnsp
o
ff
and
nearly a decade of drug-
trust and have that
create positive change."
policy-reform advocacy
safety, where they can
experience to the
SH ANN O N fc ll& Y ,
eventually consider
campaign.
PR O JECT M A N A G E R ,
other things in their life
V A N C O U V E R C O A S T A L H EALTH
“If successful
and have a little bit
treatment is the end goal,
more confidence to take
safe consumption spaces
those steps - even if it’s
are a great starting point for that
just being a little bit more healthy or finding
conversation,” he said.
housing, or reconnecting with loved ones.
Across Multnomah County in 2015, there
It’s the place to jump off and create positive
were 569 emergency medical service
change.
responses to overdoses in which naloxone,
E.G.: What do you think Portland can
an opioid-overdose-reversing medication, was
learn from previous attempts to open safe
administered, according to the tri-county’s
consumption spaces in other parts o f the
most recent report on opioid trends. More
than half of those responses were dispatched country and other parts o f the world?
to public places or businesses - a fact the
S.R.: It’s a multi-pronged approach. I
campaign says illustrates the need for a safe
think community activists need to play a
consumption space locally.
role. We have seen that so much in
These spaces are facilities where people
Vancouver. There is so much community
can safely use illicit drugs, such as heroin,
activism here that has really laid the
without fear of arrest and under the
groundwork for supervised injection. I think
supervision of trained medical professionals
we had around four to six different
who can intervene in the case of an
community-led supervised injection spaces
overdose - and serve as a connection to
that were peer-run. Within bureaucracy -
resources, such as treatment.
local government and provincial government
Across the U.S., cities including San
- just paying attention and pushing the
Francisco and Seattle are inching closer to
boundaries as much as possible and being
opening the nation’s first sanctioned safe
ready to jump as soon as change is possible:
consumption space. While Portland isn’t
E.G.: What services do you envision this
likely to be the first, campaign organizers
space would provide to people using drugs in
say it doesn’t need to be that far behind.
Portland?
Joining Safer Spaces Portland at the
OHSU event was Shannon Riley. As a
Sam Chapman: From a fundamental
project manager for Vancouver Coastal
standpoint, we want to create a safe space
Health, Riley’s work is focused on legal
for people to use in a private, supervised
consumption spaces in housing and public
setting with trained health professionals on
areas in Vancouver, B.C. She previously
staff. I think over time we also envision
worked at Insite, the first legal safe
social workers and other health
professionals being on site to help users
consumption space in North America.
better understand how they can access a
Street Roots asked Riley and Chapman
why Portland needs a safe consumptionsite, variety of different treatment options. What
we’ve seen historically is that forced
the campaign’s strategy and challenges that
treatment is often ineffective, but when
people have the option and feel they are in a
safe, comfortable setting to have these
conversations, that the likelihood of them
exploring those options is much greater.
And we believe a safe consumption space is
an ideal place to have those conversations.
FACT SHEET
E.G.: What is your strategy for m aking this
a reality?
S.C.: Right now our main focus is to
engage the public through a clear and
concise education campaign that really
highlights the current and immediate need
for a safe consumption space here in
Portland. Some of the most recent stats are
from 2015, but in 2015 there were more
than 500 overdose responses here in
Multnomah County, and 103 of those 500
overdose responses resulted in a fatality, so
that’s more than 1 in 5 people (who had an
overdose response) having fatal overdoses
here in Multnomah County. I think it’s
something that we want people to be aware
of. I think that people generally understand
that there is an opioid problem and
epidemic, and we really want to help focus in
on what that means for people here in
Multnomah County.
The second aspect of our strategy is
working with public health professionals, as
well as elected officials, to really explore
what makes sense in terms of moving this
issue forward here in Multnomah County
and in Portland, and we’ve already started
some of those conversations with the
county and the city, along with Outside In,
which is the current needle exchange
program here in Portland.
E.G.: What is going to be the biggest
challenge?
S.C.: One of the biggest challenges, to my
mind, is not if we will eventually come to
the realization that there is a dire need for
safe consumption spaces, but where and
how. Locating a facility like this can often be
controversial, depending on where a viable
site might be, and that’s why it’s so
important that we have coalition partners -
whether they be businesses, health
professionals, the city, real estate
developers. There’s a lot of different
stakeholders in this conversation, and it’s
important that we bring them in upfront, as
opposed to moving forward and then
coming to them later on. We want to engage
all stakeholders upfront in a very clear way,
so we can address concerns upfront and find
solutions collectively.
E.G.: How can people get involved?
S.C.: We’d love to hear from anyone who
wants to be a volunteer. They can email us
directly at scs4pdx@gmail.com. Follow or
like our Safer Spaces Portland Facebook
page (Facebook.com/SaferSpacesPDX). It’s
a great way to stay up to date with the most
recent news, events and information. We’re
also launching a website at SaferSpacesPDX.
com.
emily@streetroots.org; Twitter @greenwrites
77%
Of syringe exchange clients
polled reported experiencing
homelessness o r unstable
housing in 2016.
3 MILLION
Used syringes were properly disposed
by Outside in & Multnomah County
syringe exchanges in 2015. Syringe
exchanges and SIFs'decrease public
disposal in parks by providing spaces for
people to properly dispose.
>50%
O f heroin u sers surveyed
w anted to quit or cut
down but re po rt m any
barriers to treatm ent.
Source: Tri-County Regional Opioid
Trends 2016
*SIF = supervised injection facility
G R A P H IC S C O U R T E S Y O F
SAFER S PAC ES P O R T L A N D