If some residents of Chatham-Kent wonder if clean needles and pipes should be given to people who use drugs, the local medical officer of health believes they should.
Dr. Shanker Nesathurai told CK News Today that this is an effective way to help stop the spread of diseases like HIV and hepatitis.
He understands that some might see this as enabling, however, he explains that most people with addictions will find other ways to get high.
"Although it may be unsettling to some people, I don't think it enables people to use substances. It doesn't make them more likely to use them. What it does do is make them more safe," said Nesathurai.
He added this isn't an endorsement for drug use, rather a tactic to help keep people with addictions as safe as possible.
"As Doctors, we would prefer that people don't use substances that affect their thinking and cognition, but that's not the reality of medicine. Medical treatment is really about giving people better health," explained Nesathurai.
Handing out needles and pipes has become a hot-button issue in Chatham-Kent (CK) due to the ongoing concerns around drug use in homeless encampments.
Reach Out Chatham-Kent (R.O.C.K.) previously confirmed that it has been handing out clean needles to people living in tents. Renee Geniole, executive director of R.O.C.K., defended the decision and said anyone thinking these encampments are just full of used needles is wrong.
CK Public Health didn't have actual statistics, but claimed the number of cases of hepatitis and HIV appears to be improving. Nesathurai said this is good news for everyone as the cost of treating people with these diseases is high, sitting over $1 million for HIV and in the tens of thousands for hepatitis.
Laura Zettler, an epidemiologist with CK Public Health, went on to say that harm reduction isn't a panacea, but studies have shown that it helps.
"We're fighting an uphill battle, but I think we can see clearly that harm reduction is making good sense and is definitely proven to be effective in the long term and the short term," she explained.
Organizations like the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Harm Reduction Coalition, and the International Association of Providers of AIDS Care have defended handing out clean needles and pipes.
Meanwhile, Zettler added that handing out needles and pipes isn't the only form of harm reduction, as condoms and naloxone kits are other examples that fall under this category.
