Page 32 - ARUBA TODAY

A32 FEATURE
Monday 16 July 2018

'It keeps us safe': An NYC bathroom set up to stem overdoses

By JENNIFER PELTZ As people injected them-
NEW YORK (AP) — At an selves, staffers would watch
unassuming storefront on a for trouble signs and jump
busy Brooklyn street, peo- in with overdose-reversing
ple sign up to use a bath- drugs if needed. Workers
room outfitted to try to curb would look for opportuni-
an overdose crisis. ties to discuss treatment,
Waiting his turn, a man and advocates argue the
named Robert is frank caring-but-not-coercive
about why he's there, in- approach helps people
stead of one of the stair- make changes. But the
wells, parks, rooftops or main goal is simply survival.
porches where he has used "You can't detox if you're
heroin in the past. dead. You can't treat
"It keeps us safe. It keeps us someone if they're dead,"
from getting arrested. You says Kassandra Frederique,
feel secure here," says Rob- New York state director of
ert, who discussed his drug the Drug Policy Alliance,
use on condition that his which advocates for less
last name not be used be- restrictive drug laws.
cause he fears arrest and There has never been a re-
damage to family relation- ported overdose death at
ships. "You know that some- a supervised injection site,
one's paying attention if In this Tuesday, July 3, 2018 photo, Evelyn Milan director of services at VOCAL-NY, prepares a according to studies that
you fall out in there. ... You package with sterile injecting equipment for a member in the Brooklyn, New York. say the facilities also reduce
know they're not going to Associated Press HIV infections and 911 calls
let nothing happen to you." for overdoses, among oth-
As communities debate officials have said they're If not official, the restroom "overdose prevention cen- er problems. Researchers
trying to stem overdose illegal. isn't exactly underground, ters" at privately run sy- estimated New York's City's
deaths by allowing safe While the discussion plays either. State Health De- ringe-exchange programs, proposal could prevent 130
havens for people to take out, Robert and about a partment policies suggest and Philadelphia is looking deaths and save $7 million
heroin and other narcotics, dozen other people turned that needle exchange for organizations interested in health care expenses
places like this needle ex- up on a recent afternoon programs bathrooms have in running or funding injec- per year. "The evidence is
change program are qui- to use the bathroom off the such safeguards. tion sites. absolutely clear that (the
etly providing a model of green-and-orange drop-in "This bathroom is literally a San Francisco initially concept) has these great
sorts: bathrooms monitored room at VOCAL-NY, where response to hundreds of hoped to open two sites benefits," says injection-
by intercom, so someone work includes needle ex- overdose deaths in bath- this summer or fall but now site researcher Alex Kral, a
can intervene to stop an change, support groups rooms and streets across isn't setting a timeframe researcher at the RTI Inter-
overdose. and advocacy campaigns. the city," Jeremy Saunders, while working through le- national research institute.
Officially, they aren't the A sign on the bathroom VOCAL's co-executive di- gal issues. Seattle has bud- "Once people understand
more full-fledged and con- allows 10 minutes "to take rector. "You can say we're geted $1.3 million this year it, I have a hard time un-
troversial facilities — often care of business." But ev- enabling people, but what to work toward launching a derstanding how anyone
called safe injection sites ery three minutes, a staffer we would say is: At what site, while opponents have could be against it."
— that cities including New checks in by intercom. If point do you want us to been trying for a public Tell that to Snohomish
York, Philadelphia, San there's no response, the stop caring?" vote on banning it. County Councilman Nate
Francisco and Seattle are staffer will release the door Opioid drugs — including A typical site would go well Nehring, who recently
seeking to open and that lock and come in, ready to pain pills, heroin and the beyond VOCAL's bath- spearheaded a safe injec-
already operate overseas. administer anti-overdose heavy-duty painkiller fen- room, offering a space tion site ban in his county
At the same time, some medication. In eight years, tanyl — have spawned the with tables or booths set up north of Seattle; they're also
counties and cities have a few people have over- deadliest epidemic of drug with sterile syringes, alcohol prohibited in some Sno-
pre-emptively banned in- dosed but all have been overdoses in U.S. history. It swabs and other accoutre- homish cities and Pierce
jection sites, and federal rescued, VOCAL says. has killed over 47,000 peo- ments. County , south of Seattle.q
ple nationwide in the 12
months that ended in No-
vember, the most recent
federal data.
About 100 supervised injec-
tion sites have opened in
Canada, Australia and Eu-
rope over the past 30 years.
At least one has been op-
erating under the radar
somewhere in the U.S. since
2014, according to a re-
search paper .
The mayor of the college
town of Ithaca, New York,
proposed a supervised in- In this Tuesday, July 3, 2018 photo, a Narcan nasal device, which
In this Tuesday, June 19, 2018 photo, a timer placed on a sign-in jection space in 2016. Now delivers naloxone, lies on a counter as VOCAL-NY coordinator
sheet counts down the 10 minutes members are allowed to use New York is seeking state Laura Levine gives a volunteer instructions on how to administer
the bathroom at VOCAL-NY in Brooklyn, New York. it at the headquarters in the Brooklyn, New York.
Associated Press and community approval Associated Press
for a one-year test of four