"It keeps us safe": Bathroom set up to avoid overdoses

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NEW YORK – In a modest Brooklyn showcase, people are signing up to use an equipped bathroom to try to stem an overdose crisis.

While waiting for his turn, a man named Robert is frank to know why he is here. instead of one of the staircases, parks, roofs or porches where he has already consumed heroin

"This keeps us safe. to stop, you feel safe here, "says Robert, who discussed his drug use provided that his last name is not used because he fears being arrested and harming family relationships. "You know that someone is careful if you fall in it.

As communities try to stem overdose deaths by allowing people to take heroin and other narcotics safely, places like this program of exchange syringes are discreetly installed. provide a model of sorts: bathrooms monitored by intercom, so that someone can intervene to stop an overdose.

Officially, they are not the most comprehensive and controversial facilities – often referred to as safe injection sites – that cities including New York, Philadelphia, San Francisco, and Seattle are seeking to open and that are already operating at the same time. # 39; abroad. At the same time, some counties and cities have preemptively banned injection sites, and federal officials have said they were illegal.

As the discussion unfolds, Robert and a dozen other people showed up to use the bathroom of the green and orange VOCAL-NY room, where the work includes the syringe exchange , support groups and advocacy campaigns.

A sign on the bathroom allows you to take 10 minutes to do business. But every three minutes, a staff member checks through intercom. If there is no response, the staff member will release the door lock and enter, ready to administer an anti-overdose medication. In eight years, some people overdosed, but all were saved, says VOCAL.

If it's not official, the toilets are not really underground either. "This bathroom is literally a response to hundreds of overdose deaths in bathrooms and city streets," said Jeremy Saunders, co-executive director of VOCAL. "You can say we allow people, but what we would say is: When do you want us to stop taking care?"

Opioid medications – including painkillers, heroin, and fentanyl painkiller the most lethal epidemic of drug overdoses in the history of the United States. It killed more than 47,000 people across the country in the 12 months to November, the latest federal data.

About 100 supervised injection sites have been opened in Canada, Australia and Europe in the last 30 years. According to a research article, at least one of them had been under the radar somewhere in the United States since 2014.

The Mayor of the University City of Ithaca, NY, proposed a space for Supervised injection in 2016. and community approval for a one-year test of four 'overdose prevention centers' in private needle exchange programs, and Philadelphia is seeking organizations interested in managing or funding injection sites.

San Francisco hoped to open two summer or fall sites, but now does not set a timetable while working through legal issues. Seattle has budgeted $ 1.3 million this year to work on launching a site, while opponents have tried to get it to vote publicly.

A typical site would go well beyond the VOCAL bathroom, providing space with tables or cabins Sterile syringes, alcohol swabs and other accessories.

As people were injecting, staff members monitored warning signs and joined anti-overdose medications as needed. Workers would look for opportunities to discuss treatment, and advocates argue that the caring, but not coercive, approach helps people make changes. But the main goal is simply survival.

"You can not detoxify yourself if you're dead.You can not treat someone he's dead," says Kbadandra Frederique, director of the Drug Policy Alliance in New York, who advocates less restrictive drug laws

There has never been an overdose death during a supervised injection site, according to studies that indicate that facilities also reduce HIV infections and 911 calls for overdoses, among other problems.The researchers estimate that New York City's proposal could avert 130 deaths and save $ 7 million in health spending a year.

"The evidence is absolutely clear that (the concept) has these great benefits, "says Alex Kral, researcher at the injection site.Searcher at the RTI International Research Institute." Once people understand it, I have to misunderstanding how someone might counter it. "

Tell the Snohomish County Councilman, Nate Nehring, who recently led an injection ban in his county north of Seattle; they are also prohibited in some cities of Snohomish and Pierce County, south of Seattle.

"I do not see where the compbadion is to simply give a needle to someone to make her take heroin for the rest of her life," said Nehring, a Republican. "True compbadion says," We will not let you live this way. … We are very willing to help you with our resources, but you must purify yourself. "

The members of a committee of the Colorado General Assembly had similar scruples when they recently declined a Denver proposal

and in Baltimore, the health commissioner, Dr. Leana Wen says taking action for an injection site without federal approval could jeopardize funding the city can not afford to lose Dr. Jerome Adams Surgeon General has described these facilities as "illegal." While the Justice Department declined to comment on the injection sites, Vermont's US Attorney's Office, Christina Nolan, said that the employees of the US government have Injection site may be subject to criminal prosecution and confiscation of their property Bridget Brennan, Narcotics Prosecutor, fears that injection sites will cause resentment in the neighborhood, risk of legal problems and send misleading signals that drug use can be "safe".

There is no such debate at VOCAL-NY, where reminders of the dangers of drug use are as close as a work framed by a 28-year-old man who is death from an overdose.

Or as close as VOCAL activists and newlyweds Levele and Nilda Pointer, sitting side by side.

Nilda, 46, survived three overdoses and three strokes related to her former heroin use. Levele, 50, says he would have "kicked in the door" to get to a safe injection site, rather than underpbades, condemned buildings and others. where he was taking heroin, crack and marijuana.

when he knew that he had gone too far and thought that his heart was going to stop or burst. He felt "a total fear of being on the verge of death".

"These are moments I would never want to see live," he says, and stifles.

"It's okay, baby," Nilda said. "You are OK today."