CSSDP - Myth: Safe injection sites just help drug users, not the average taxpayer.

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Myth: Safe injection sites just help drug users, not the average taxpayer.

Actually...

Insite is funded by the BC Ministry of Health to the tune of $500,000 year, which runs the clinic seven days a week and facilitates between 750 and 800 injections per day. That $500,000 is an investment in public health, as Insite reduces rates of syringe sharing¹, which lowers its clients’ risk for HIV/AIDS. Insite’s clientèle are extremely vulnerable to blood-borne viruses: three in 10 injection drug users in the Vancouver’s Downtown East Side have HIV/AIDS and 9 in 10 have hepatitis C – 38 times the provincial average². It has been estimated that every case of HIV infection costs the health care system $250,000³. Therefore, if Insite prevents only two HIV transmissions per year, it has already paid for itself.

1. Kerr, T., Tyndall, M.W., Montaner, J.S. & Wood, E (2005). “Safer Injecting Facility Use and Syringe Sharing Among Injection Drug Users.” Lancet 366.

2. BC Stats (2006) “A report for the Canadian Community Epidemiology Network on Drug Use.” Vancouver Drug Use Epidemiology.

3. Levy, A.R. et al (2006). “The Direct Cost of HIV/AIDS Care.” Lancet 6 (3).

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