Bring Supervised Injection Facilities to Massachusetts!

  • by: SIFMA NOW!
  • recipient: Governor Charlie Baker,, MA Senate, MA House of Representatives, Boston City Councilors, Boston Mayor Marty Walsh, City of Cambridge, City of Chelsea

     I stand with the SIFMA NOW Coalition and other concerned citizens across the Commonwealth of Massachusetts demanding that all Massachuetts politicians do everything in their power to assist an increase in harm reduction services offered and legally permissible in Massachusetts including Supervised Injection Facilities (aka Safer Drug Consumption Spaces) in response to the Overdose Epidemic we are now living in.

FOR MORE INFO ON Supervised Injection Facilities PLEASE VISIT:

www.SIFMAnow.org

A Supervised Injection Facility (SIF aka SCS, DCR, SDUS) is a legally sanctioned facility where people who use drugs can consume pre-obtained drugs under medical supervision in a safe sanitary place that offers treatment, services and overdose education.

There are currently 100 Supervised Injection Facilities around the world including 2 in North America however not a single operational one in the United States.


Supervised injection facilities are designed to reduce the health and societal problems associated with injection drug use while engaging in discussion and referring drug users recovery and treatment options.

Supervised Injection Facility Objectives: Public Health + Public Safety

Benefits include:
-Reduce incidence of overdose
-Reduce incidence of HIV, hepatitis C, and other injection-related infections
-Improve access to substance use disorder treatment
-Improve access to harm reduction and health care for high-utilizing, high-risk populations
-Improve access to wrap-around health, social services
-Improve syringe and needle disposal
-Reduce public drug use
-Improve neighborhood security
-Improve public safety-public health collaboration

www.SIFMAnow.org

I stand with SIFMA NOW, Health Care providers and facilities, Public Health workers, former and current drug users, families and everyone who have ever lost a loved one to an overdose to take all necessary steps to authorize and establish Supervised Injection Facilities, also commonly called safe consumption spaces, in Massachusetts as a public health intervention to reduce HIV and viral hepatitis transmission and overdose deaths, promote access to chemical dependency treatment and other supportive care, and increase public safety and as another solution to solving the Opiod Crisis.


Supervised Injection Facilities are controlled health care settings where people can more safely use pre-obtained drugs in a hygienic environment with access to sterile injecting equipment and under the supervision of trained care staff. Safe consumption spaces provide an array of support including health care, counseling, and referrals to health and social services, including drug treatment.


Numerous peer-reviewed scientific studies have proven the positive impacts of safe consumption and injection spaces. These benefits include:



  • Increased access to drug treatment, especially among people who distrust the treatment system and are unlikely to seek treatment on their own;

  • Reduced public disorder, reduced public injecting, and increased public safety;

  • Reduced HIV and viral hepatitis risk behavior (e.g. syringe and other injection equipment sharing, unsafe sex) and bacterial infections (e.g. staph infection, endocarditis).

  • Successful management of overdoses and reducing overdose deaths;

  • Cost savings resulting from reduced disease, overdose, and need for emergency medical services, and increased preventive healthcare and drug treatment utilization;

  • Not increasing community drug use, initiation into injection drug use, or drug-related crime.


Safe consumption spaces are a vital part of a comprehensive public health approach to reducing the harms of drug use. Safe consumption spaces, of course, cannot prevent all risky drug use or related harms. However, evidence demonstrates that they can be remarkably effective, generate cost-saving, and improve the lives of people who use drugs and the safety and health of our communities.


I believe that the lives of people who use drugs matter. I support safe consumption spaces in Boston, and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts!


SUPPORT AND VOTE YES TO SIF/SCS legislation: SD 1775 and others

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