Being realistic about benefits of supervised injecting facilities.

SUBSTANCE abuse treatment facilities; HEALTH facilities; DRUG abuse; PEOPLE with drug addiction; INJECTIONS; DRUG administration; BLOODBORNE infections; RISK-taking behavior; BEHAVIOR; HUMAN behavior

VANCOUVER (B.C.); BRITISH Columbia

Focuses on supervised injecting facilities, which are legally sanctioned places located near illicit drug markets in which injecting drug users can inject prepurchased drugs under clinical supervision. Role of such facilities in reducing injecting in public and discarding of needles; Focus on improving the health and functioning of injecting drug users; Arguments of opponents of supervised injecting facilities; Report by Thomas Kerr and Colleagues from Vancouver, British Columbia; Effort to evaluate the effect of a supervised injecting facility on risk behaviour as regards blood-borne viruses; Challenges that made it difficult to show that supervised injecting facilities have had an effect on the incidence of infection with blood-borne viruses.