Supervised injections help drug users

Sometimes people who inject drugs are provided with supervised facilities where they can do this on the basis that this allows them to use clean needles and brings them into contact with health professionals who may persuade them to seek treatment for their drug use. One of the places where this happens is Vancouver, in a project called Insite. Researchers from St Paul's Hospital in British Columbia and the University of British Columbia studied the effectiveness of the Insite programme and came up with some encouraging results. Of 902 Insite clients who visited the facility between December 2003 and June 2006 95 reported quitting injecting drug use for at least six months, 78% of whom had recently taken part in addiction treatment. The Insite clients who went into treatment were more likely to have been regular users of the service and to have had contact with on-site addiction counsellors.

You can find out more about this research by clicking on the title of this post.