Safe injection site offers compassion

Re: Advocates pushing for safe injection site, by Brian Cross, Jan. 26.

In this excellent article it mentions several people who advocate for a safe injection site and express the urgent need for an overdose prevention site.

The article makes the following points: the need for the presence of medical professionals to supervise injections by drug users; the need to provide new needles in order to prevent infections; the importance of administering naloxone in case of an overdose; and the need to provide counselling so that more drug users will become former addicts, as is the case of Matt Cascadden.

All these measures will make it safer to walk the streets for both users and non-users.

To citizens who are opposed to an overdose prevention site, I recommend that they read the article titled Pain and Privilege by Dr. Ashley Miller published in the Globe and Mail. She states: “It was only in this current state of true agony (severe back pain) that I really began to understand the opioid problem: I had underestimated how painful pain can be.”

Further on in the article she adds: “Opioids dampen physical pain, but they also feel like love, comfort and peace.”

Miller, a physician, also states that many people cannot afford some of the treatments which she received and often do not have a supportive family.

Physical and emotional pain are common to many people for varied reasons and, therefore, they should be treated in a non-judgmental and respectful manner, as is the case with any other health problem. This support will help many people become more resilient members of our society.

A safe injection site is a step in the right direction to make Windsor a compassionate city with safer streets.

Monica van den Hoven, Windsor