Article Analysis: Insite Clinics

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Drugs are everywhere people go and can be seriously dangerous, heroin and other drugs such as crack can lead to an outrageous number of overdose deaths and HIV transmissions. Vancouver has a safe and legal clinic, InSite, that allows people to come in and inject themselves with heroin or use other drugs while being supervised. After reading an interview with the manager of InSite, more people can understand the impact and benefits these clinics could have amongst many users all over. Many who don't use view the clinics negatively in which it is only feeding the users addiction instead of helping them get into treatment and recovery. Despite the negative concerns, the clinic brings in people that could potentially be looking for help with detox or if they just need clean supplies, such as needles. In Meera Senthilingam article “Canada's Safe Injection Center Brings Drug Addicts 'Out of the Alleys'” from December 17, 2015 CNN she uses a widespread of interviews and statistics to successfully argue that there should be more clinics like InSite to help prevent people from overdose and HIV. In the beginning of the article, Senthilingam uses a quote from an interview with the manager of the InSite clinic, Darwin Fisher. …show more content…
She explains that the facility is a place where users can feel safe and comfortable while injecting themselves with drugs they bring into the facility. There are nurses on standby in case of an overdose, along with counselors and support from others. Users may also be comforted by the fact that the clinic is filled with people with the same interest and it's better for them to connect and help each other. In the article Fisher states his main proposition for the clinic, ‘“It's about helping people who have been marginalized to the alleys and bring them into the light of healthcare.”’ She understands that Fishers purpose for the clinic is to keep users out of the streets and offer people the care they need to stay away from infections and overdose. According to the members of the British Columbia Center for Excellence in HIV/AIDS, there is a decrease in overdose and HIV transmission since opening the clinic. The members believe that the clinics should expand throughout the U.S. because Vancouver, Canada is the only injection facility in North America. The director of John Hopkins Center for Public Health and Human Rights says that because people have always thought that the world should be drug free, people don't want to accept substance use. That could be why the only InSite clinic is located in Vancouver, Canada. Not only does she use interviews from the manager of the InSite clinic and members of the British Columbia Center for Excellence in HIV/AIDS but, she also uses interviews from the people that come into the clinic. For example, Wesley Jerilla, a 53-year old man who was around when the highest rate of HIV was in Vancouver, spoke about his drug use. He would go to InSite to use crack, the substance he was addicted to, he spoke with Senthilingam about his addiction and how the clinic helped get rid of the cravings to use daily. Even though InSite isn’t necessarily for treating addiction Jerilla stated, ‘“I've now gotten a few people into detox.”’ This man who had an

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