Recently I attended a Pierce County Council meeting to hear their discussion of a proposal made by two members to ban safe consumption sites (SCS) before they’re even considered as an option in fighting the opiate crisis.  It was disheartening to hear Pierce County Council member Pam Roach share a great deal of misinformation that did nothing but reinforce stereotypes and fear. More importantly, the Councils’ vote to ban SCS comes out of a half century of failed drug war policies. It is more of what we’ve done that does not work. We have mountains of data that confirms this and, if you don’t want to rely on national conversations about drugs and users, take a look at the wealth of data in the Global Commission on Drug Policy reports. They are incredibly well-researched and comprised of the work of people around the world. Global Commission on Drug Policy Reports

Maybe you will consider the work of those of us who research this here, in the U.S. I study American culture – the social dynamics that shape us, the cultural politics that create very different experiences for people and institutionalize social inequities. The need to help people in the opiate crisis is, clearly, a public health crisis. But it has roots in many other issues—from poor solutions for pain management, overprescription of opiates over the last decade, the pharmaceutical industry’s embedded relationship to medical care, the insurance industry’s billing structures (tail wagging the dog) and the black market (the result of criminalization). Yes, addiction is one of those factors, but it’s not part of the structural complex that has caused this crisis—it is a result.

Safe consumption sites are not THE solution—but they keep people from dying and from ODing over and over. They help people get into treatment and find other services they need…services that may help ameliorate the very issues that are part of their drug use.

I co-wrote this OpEd with Erick Seelbach, Director of the Pierce County AIDS Foundation. We lay out the argument for SCS with links to important research. There is very little data on the other side (see Pam Roach’s OpEd in the same paper from last week). Just scare tactics and stigmatization of users.

While it can be scary to consider supporting drug use, I assure you that we do this every day in many ways in our culture. Want to know more about that? Check out my book: High: Drugs, Desire, and a Nation of Users.