This transcript has been edited for clarity.
Hi. I'm Art Caplan. I'm the manager of the Division of Medical Ethics astatine the NYU Grossman School of Medicine successful New York City.
New York City is connected the cutting borderline with a precise arguable program. It has 2 centers operating arsenic overdose prevention centers, wherever individuals tin travel who are utilizing drugs and instrumentality heroin oregon different drugs nether the supervision of a healthcare nonrecreational oregon trained person. One is up successful Washington Heights successful Manhattan; the other, I believe, is implicit successful Harlem.
These 2 centers volition supervise radical taking drugs. They person disposable each of the anti-overdose medications, specified arsenic Narcan. If you overdose, they volition assistance you and effort to counsel you to get disconnected drugs, but they don't importune that you bash so. You tin spell there, adjacent if you're an addict, and proceed to instrumentality drugs nether supervision. This is called a risk-reduction strategy.
Some radical enactment that determination are implicit 100 centers similar this worldwide. They're successful Canada, Switzerland, and galore different countries, and they look to work. "Working" means much radical look to travel disconnected drugs dilatory — not immense numbers, but immoderate — than if you don't bash thing similar this, and decease rates from overdose spell mode down.
By the way, having these centers successful spot has different benefits. They prevention wealth due to the fact that erstwhile idiosyncratic overdoses retired successful the community, you person to wage each the costs of the ambulances and exigency rooms, and determination are risks to the archetypal responders owed to fentanyl oregon different things. There are less syringes littering parks and nationalist places wherever radical sprout up. You person everything controlled erstwhile they travel into a center, truthful that's little load connected the community.
It turns retired that you person little transgression due to the fact that radical conscionable aren't retired determination harming oregon robbing different radical to get wealth to get their adjacent fix. The drugs are provided for them. Crime rates successful neighborhoods astir the satellite wherever these centers run look to dip. There are galore positives.
There are besides immoderate negatives. People accidental it shouldn't beryllium the occupation of the authorities to support radical addicted. It's conscionable not the close role. Everything should beryllium aimed astatine getting radical disconnected drugs, possibly including transgression penalties if that's what it takes to get them to halt using.
My ain presumption is that hasn't worked. Implementing pugnacious situation sentences successful trying to combat the warfare connected drugs conscionable doesn't look to work. We had 100,000 deaths past twelvemonth from cause overdoses. That fig has been climbing. We each cognize that we've got a unspeakable epidemic of deaths owed to cause overdose.
It seems to maine that these centers that are progressive successful hazard simplification are a amended enactment for now, until we fig retired immoderate interventions that tin chopped the tendency oregon the thrust to usage drugs, oregon antidotes that are effectual for months oregon years, to forestall radical from getting precocious nary substance what drugs they take.
I'm going to travel retired and accidental that I deliberation the New York experimentation has worked. I deliberation it has saved upwards of 600 lives, they estimate, successful the past twelvemonth that would person been overdoses. I deliberation cost-wise, it's effective. [Reductions in] related damages and injuries from syringes being scattered around, and robbery, and truthful forth, are each to the good. There are adjacent a fewer radical coming disconnected drugs owed to counseling, which is simply a amended result than we get erstwhile they're conscionable retired successful the streets.
I deliberation different cities privation to effort this. I cognize Philadelphia does. I cognize New York wants to grow its program. The national authorities isn't sure, but I deliberation the clip has travel to effort an expansion. I deliberation we've got thing that, though acold from cleanable and I privation we had different tools, this whitethorn beryllium the champion we've got. In the warfare connected drugs, small victories ought to beryllium reinforced.
I'm Art Caplan astatine the Division of Medical Ethics astatine the NYU Grossman School of Medicine. Thank you precise overmuch for watching.
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