proximity_account t1_j3ehd2p wrote on January 8, 2023 at 12:08 AM

Reply to comment by AbsentEmpire in [New York Times] Tranq Dope: Animal Sedative Mixed With Fentanyl Brings Fresh Horror to U.S. Drug Zones by Hoyarugby

>It's just another inconvenient fact about why an SIS in isolation, rather than as part of an actual contingency management program, doesn't do much other than further blight the location its in.

I don't much about how SIS works in the US.

Are there any proposals for SIS that function only as pure SIS? Don't they usually help connect addicts to rehab resources?

There's also harm reduction. The opioid epidemic is going to get worse regardless and I don't think SIS is gonna make people inject more opioids than the addiction will make them inject. At least maybe we can get less people getting raped.

AbsentEmpire t1_j3hquwl wrote on January 8, 2023 at 5:48 PM

All US proposals function solely as injection sites. They "offer" help to addicts to connect them with treatment sources however; there is no legal requirement for addicts to use those treatment resources, nor the funding even if they did, nor any consequence for refusing them.

So in practice they effectively just enable addicts, while dressing up the dangers of drug abuse with a veil of safety, and turning the area they're in into an open air drug scene, further blighting the community.

Harm reduction is only meaningfully useful when you have the other major pillars of contingency management in place. Just viewing harm reduction in itself as a solution or helpful in any way is delusional, and is not born out by the data.