No Crime, No Fentanyl, NO DEAD –

June 20, 2017 – In the main treatment room, a familiar smell of rubbing alcohol lingers in the air — the kind of scent I associate with getting a vaccine shot. At Crosstown, the smell is the remnants of the medicine that 130 to 150 patients inject themselves with multiple times a day at the clinic. Except the injection here isn’t a vaccine. It’s medical-grade heroin. A clinic where patients use heroin may sound shocking and irresponsible, particularly now, as a deadly and devastating opioid epidemic ravages North America. But this approach is meant to treat the victims of that epidemic … The idea is this: If some people are going to use heroin no matter what, it’s better to give them a safe source of the stuff and a safe place to inject it, rather than letting them pick it up on the street — laced with who knows what — and possibly overdose without medical supervision. Patients can not only avoid death by overdose but otherwise go about their lives without stealing or committing other crimes to obtain heroin. And it isn’t some wild-eyed theory; the scientific research almost unanimously backs it up, and Crosstown’s own experience shows it can make a difference in drug users’ lives.
Full Story @ Vox.com