To serve and protect: Ithaca’s fight to prevent heroin overdose

American’s love drugs: we prescribe stimulants to keep you attentive, antidepressants to make you happier, benzodiazepines to calm and sedate, and opioids for pain relief. Opioids are a pain relieving medicine that is, from a pharmacological stand point, essentially a synthetic pill form of heroin.

The same day that the Center for Disease Control (CDC) released statistics indicating that prescription drug overdose  (often coupled with Heroin usage) is now among the leading causes of death in America, the FDA approved OxyContin for children (the most powerful prescription opioid) as young as 11 years old. The correlation between Opioid prescription/abuse and Heroin use has been marked by the FDA, so introducing these drugs to children at even earlier age seems like an irresponsible and possibly even destructive decision.

Overall deaths in the US linked to drug overdose have hit an all time high, killing nearly 125 Americans every day. I come from a small suburban town in Massachusetts, a state that has been hit exceptionally hard by the Heroin epidemic.  I have witnessed first hand a close friend’s transition from abusing his prescription pills into using heroin. This darkness only leads to more darkness and soon someone I once called a friend was facing Felony Armed Robbery charges. This is the power of what these drugs can do, besides killing you.

National Statistics on Heroin overdoses, provided by the National Institute of Health.

In fact, the rate in which Opioids, and specifically Heroin, are killing Americans has become comparable to the H.I.V crisis from the 80s and 90s, and its impacting the entire nation. Luckily, people had responded with solutions to many of the problems that lead to overdose deaths, such as training police more specifically in how to deal with an overdose and giving them Narcan (an antidote for Heroin overdose). However, New York is not one of these states. That being said, New York City is beginning to take steps in the same direction towards harm reduction.

National Statistics on prescription drug overdoses, provided by the National Institute of Health.

Most heroin users try to conceal their use, obviously, and so public restrooms and dark alleyways have become shooting galleries, which are clearly unsanitary and lead to disease and even more likelihood of death. This is why there has been large public outcry across the country, and even in Ithaca, to establish supervised injection sites to provide addicts with a safe place to use the drug (which they are already addicted to and purchasing from the black market) in an environment which will provide them with sterile conditions and monitor their usage. This approach is called Harm Reduction, and it focuses on trying to help people, not lock them up – a bold step for a country who is notorious for it’s insane incarceration rates.

Ithaca hasn’t been spared the slightest in this epidemic, as drug use in the city has been a long withstanding public issue and a simple walk through downtown can provide you with a quick snapshot of a community that has been hit. Svante Myrick, Ithaca’s major, in conjunction with Ithaca’s Municipal Drug Policy Committee (MDPC), is concerned about ways to treat this public health crisis, and have looked to other cities and countries and seen the enormous potential for these Supervised Injection Sites to make a difference.

A used needle found in Downtown Ithaca. Photo by Ed Dittenhoefer, featued in the Ithaca Voice.

Initially when proposed, Public Service workers and Law Enforcement in Ithaca supported the choice, because they deal with this fight every day and are the ones who watch these souls slip away. However, their stance quickly changed and now Law Enforcement is challenging the idea instead, with the Ithaca Police Chief stating he would rather enforce drug laws than save people from slowly killing themselves. I find this a troublesome and somewhat ironic interpretation of the Oath to “Protect and Serve”.

Injection sites are not giving drugs to addicts, they are simply providing them with a safe space to do the drugs they are already addicted to, and in a facility where they will be supervised and monitored. This Heroin epidemic is not going away as long as there is a thriving black market, and there will always be a thriving black market if we keep prescribing drugs that send people down the path of addiction.

So I ask, what other steps can be taken? Up to 100 Americans are going to die today because of opioid overdose, most likely in a trashy gas station bathroom or on the pavement (in public) alone and afraid. Perhaps we can’t fight this national battle, we can leave that to the politicians, but we can take steps in our community to save the next person that might die.

The Police can fight their losing war on drugs, but I think we need to fight another kind of war, one with compassion and understanding, a war that fosters support, understanding, empathy and a clean syringe rather than handcuffs and criminal records.