(no subject)
I think this is how i'm supposed to do this so here we go...
This essay required a lot of research on my part, as i found this was a very controversial subject. As my confidence was low with this particular topic, i chose not to have this marked, but after re reading my one editors comments, i found that it wasn't so weak after all. IN this essay my peer editor made few corrections, mainly just word changes that made this essay sound better. For example, when talking about something positive, using positive language. I honestly did not change much with this essay as it wasn't for marks, but i did go through and re worded some of my sentences from the original copy.
Julia Zimmerman
Eng. 250
C0272373
Persuasion Essay
Safe Injection Sites and the Capital Region
For years now there has been controversy swirling around the idea of erecting a safe injection site for drug users in the downtown Victoria region. Many people have many different opinions in respect to the question of whether or not the government should provide a safe place for drug users to administer drugs into their bodies. If one were to take a walk around downtown Victoria at any time of day, they would be bombarded with images of homelessness and drug induced psychotic behavior. The issue of homelessness and drug use in the downtown region is a common topic of conversation between the people of Victoria and the majority of these people agree that these two problems are getting worse. One may ask, “How can we improve the drug situation in the downtown core?” And the answer is, erect a safe injection site.
Among those who are opposed to safe injection sites, when asked what their reasoning is behind it, they respond, “It will only encourage the drug users to continue to use drugs.” At first thought, this reason seems logical. After further investigation into the goals of safe injection sites, it can be shown that this particular reason can be proven wrong. Safe injection sites are not put up in cities to encourage people to come into the building, shoot up to get their high for the day. They are built to encourage safe injection procedures and to provide healthy information and counseling services to the addicts of the city.
In Vancouver, BC a safe injection site was opened on September 15, 2003 and it has been nothing but successful. This safe injection site is the only one of its kind available in North America. This particular safe injection site was opened on a conditional three year term, and at the end of the three years, it would be evaluated to see if the site provided any improvement in Vancouver’s downtown east side (Liberal). A month has passed since its so called expiry date, and the facility is still open. This particular facility has so far saved 336 lives that would have otherwise been lost to a battle of drugs. (Unknown) This site also sees about four hundred and fifty injections per day, and provides the people injecting, clean and sterile needles with the eye of a trained nurse watching close by. These two procedures alone assist in the reduction of spreading diseases such as HIV/AIDS. The goals of safe injection sites are not to say to addicts, “Hey! Come on in and do your drugs while we stand here and do nothing to try and help you! Get as high as you want and do not forget to come back and do it again when your high is over!” The main goal of the safe injection sites is harm reduction.
When one talks about Harm reduction in relation to a safe injection site, they mean that the user can come into an unbiased, healthy, sterile place and perform his act of drug use safely. Drug users are going to use drugs no matter what anyone tries to do. Drugs have been around since the beginning of time and have been abused since this time as well. The problem is, is that governments have made them so incredibly illegal and wrong that we now have absolutely no tolerance for drug users and addicts. Unfortunately the drug problem is not going to go away. We cannot ignore it. It is everywhere we look. By acknowledging that every city does have problems, and by taking measures to help our cities addicts and not ignoring them, our cities would see an immediate increase in the cleanliness of their drug districts, as well as the amount of addicts seeking help.
One of the many features of a safe injection site is that it provides on site counseling services for its users. By offering counseling programs at the site of injection, there would be an additional option now for the user to take as opposed to performing his regular routine of doing his drugs. By providing the user with options such as counseling, the site has now just gone from a hundred percent chance that the user will inject his drugs, to a fifty percent chance. By showing the addicts that we as a population care about them and their well being, we again are decreasing the chance, even if only by a little, of them re abusing. The biggest complaints one hears from drug abusers is that they feel like there is no where to go get help, and that no one cares about them. By erecting safe injection sites, we are showing that we do care about our addict population just as much as anyone else. By putting hundreds of thousands of dollars into these facilities, it would be rather hard to still believe that no one cared. The problem is, is that our government is not putting money into this type of program and so results in the user’s views of how no one cares for them.
Another feature provided by safe injection sites is the nurses that it employs. At the Vancouver safe injection site, numerous qualified nurses are on hand to assist the addicts in safely administering the intravenous drugs so that less harm is done to their veins. By lessening the risk of harm to their view, this will prevent infections, vein irritations and even death. Nurses are also on hand to help with any overdoses that they suspect might be taking place. The nurses educate the users as to how much is too much and thus the users use a “healthier” amount of drugs when injecting.
An additional result to having a safe injection site in the city is the decrease in the visible amount of drug paraphernalia around the town. By having an injection site, this takes away the need for users to throw their needles on the ground that may be contaminated with various diseases. The users would be injecting in an environment where the needles are disposed of in a sterile way, thus the use of needles on the street would shrink.
With Victoria’s warm climate and generally welcoming population, it is a prime candidate for drug users to move to. A lot of drug users are homeless and with the climate that Victoria has, it makes it much easier to survive on the streets looking for the next fix. With it being visibly noticeable that the street people population is the on the rise, erecting a safe injection site in the downtown area would be a wise move. If we are prepared for the users that are going to continue to come, then we will be more successful in controlling the problem of drugs in the downtown core. Victoria needs to become a harm reduction city like the city across the ocean, not a war on drugs city like those of the United States. With the right tools and programs available to drug addicts in one location, it is certain that only improvements would be made. Unfortunately, each city has to start somewhere, and right now Victoria is slowly on its way forward with the opening of its first needle exchange program. The next step is to provide a safe haven for the users to inject safely and receive educated information from educated people. Addicts are people too, and they should be treated with respect and dignity, not ignorance.
Works Cited
Unknown Author.” Keep BC’s safe injection sites open: Canadian activists”. August
2006. October 20,2006.
The Northern Liberal. “Gerrard supports real solutions to drug addiction.” August
30, 2006. October 20, 2006
This essay required a lot of research on my part, as i found this was a very controversial subject. As my confidence was low with this particular topic, i chose not to have this marked, but after re reading my one editors comments, i found that it wasn't so weak after all. IN this essay my peer editor made few corrections, mainly just word changes that made this essay sound better. For example, when talking about something positive, using positive language. I honestly did not change much with this essay as it wasn't for marks, but i did go through and re worded some of my sentences from the original copy.
Julia Zimmerman
Eng. 250
C0272373
Persuasion Essay
Safe Injection Sites and the Capital Region
For years now there has been controversy swirling around the idea of erecting a safe injection site for drug users in the downtown Victoria region. Many people have many different opinions in respect to the question of whether or not the government should provide a safe place for drug users to administer drugs into their bodies. If one were to take a walk around downtown Victoria at any time of day, they would be bombarded with images of homelessness and drug induced psychotic behavior. The issue of homelessness and drug use in the downtown region is a common topic of conversation between the people of Victoria and the majority of these people agree that these two problems are getting worse. One may ask, “How can we improve the drug situation in the downtown core?” And the answer is, erect a safe injection site.
Among those who are opposed to safe injection sites, when asked what their reasoning is behind it, they respond, “It will only encourage the drug users to continue to use drugs.” At first thought, this reason seems logical. After further investigation into the goals of safe injection sites, it can be shown that this particular reason can be proven wrong. Safe injection sites are not put up in cities to encourage people to come into the building, shoot up to get their high for the day. They are built to encourage safe injection procedures and to provide healthy information and counseling services to the addicts of the city.
In Vancouver, BC a safe injection site was opened on September 15, 2003 and it has been nothing but successful. This safe injection site is the only one of its kind available in North America. This particular safe injection site was opened on a conditional three year term, and at the end of the three years, it would be evaluated to see if the site provided any improvement in Vancouver’s downtown east side (Liberal). A month has passed since its so called expiry date, and the facility is still open. This particular facility has so far saved 336 lives that would have otherwise been lost to a battle of drugs. (Unknown) This site also sees about four hundred and fifty injections per day, and provides the people injecting, clean and sterile needles with the eye of a trained nurse watching close by. These two procedures alone assist in the reduction of spreading diseases such as HIV/AIDS. The goals of safe injection sites are not to say to addicts, “Hey! Come on in and do your drugs while we stand here and do nothing to try and help you! Get as high as you want and do not forget to come back and do it again when your high is over!” The main goal of the safe injection sites is harm reduction.
When one talks about Harm reduction in relation to a safe injection site, they mean that the user can come into an unbiased, healthy, sterile place and perform his act of drug use safely. Drug users are going to use drugs no matter what anyone tries to do. Drugs have been around since the beginning of time and have been abused since this time as well. The problem is, is that governments have made them so incredibly illegal and wrong that we now have absolutely no tolerance for drug users and addicts. Unfortunately the drug problem is not going to go away. We cannot ignore it. It is everywhere we look. By acknowledging that every city does have problems, and by taking measures to help our cities addicts and not ignoring them, our cities would see an immediate increase in the cleanliness of their drug districts, as well as the amount of addicts seeking help.
One of the many features of a safe injection site is that it provides on site counseling services for its users. By offering counseling programs at the site of injection, there would be an additional option now for the user to take as opposed to performing his regular routine of doing his drugs. By providing the user with options such as counseling, the site has now just gone from a hundred percent chance that the user will inject his drugs, to a fifty percent chance. By showing the addicts that we as a population care about them and their well being, we again are decreasing the chance, even if only by a little, of them re abusing. The biggest complaints one hears from drug abusers is that they feel like there is no where to go get help, and that no one cares about them. By erecting safe injection sites, we are showing that we do care about our addict population just as much as anyone else. By putting hundreds of thousands of dollars into these facilities, it would be rather hard to still believe that no one cared. The problem is, is that our government is not putting money into this type of program and so results in the user’s views of how no one cares for them.
Another feature provided by safe injection sites is the nurses that it employs. At the Vancouver safe injection site, numerous qualified nurses are on hand to assist the addicts in safely administering the intravenous drugs so that less harm is done to their veins. By lessening the risk of harm to their view, this will prevent infections, vein irritations and even death. Nurses are also on hand to help with any overdoses that they suspect might be taking place. The nurses educate the users as to how much is too much and thus the users use a “healthier” amount of drugs when injecting.
An additional result to having a safe injection site in the city is the decrease in the visible amount of drug paraphernalia around the town. By having an injection site, this takes away the need for users to throw their needles on the ground that may be contaminated with various diseases. The users would be injecting in an environment where the needles are disposed of in a sterile way, thus the use of needles on the street would shrink.
With Victoria’s warm climate and generally welcoming population, it is a prime candidate for drug users to move to. A lot of drug users are homeless and with the climate that Victoria has, it makes it much easier to survive on the streets looking for the next fix. With it being visibly noticeable that the street people population is the on the rise, erecting a safe injection site in the downtown area would be a wise move. If we are prepared for the users that are going to continue to come, then we will be more successful in controlling the problem of drugs in the downtown core. Victoria needs to become a harm reduction city like the city across the ocean, not a war on drugs city like those of the United States. With the right tools and programs available to drug addicts in one location, it is certain that only improvements would be made. Unfortunately, each city has to start somewhere, and right now Victoria is slowly on its way forward with the opening of its first needle exchange program. The next step is to provide a safe haven for the users to inject safely and receive educated information from educated people. Addicts are people too, and they should be treated with respect and dignity, not ignorance.
Works Cited
Unknown Author.” Keep BC’s safe injection sites open: Canadian activists”. August
2006. October 20,2006.
The Northern Liberal. “Gerrard supports real solutions to drug addiction.” August
30, 2006. October 20, 2006