Pushing the Envelope: Supervised Injection Facilities and Other Good Ideas

Pushing the Envelope: Supervised Injection Facilities and Other Good Ideas 
San Gabriel A, Lobby Level
A Supervised Injection Facility (SIF) is a place where people who inject illegal drugs can do so in a safe place – off the streets, with access to health services. Evaluations of these facilities have consistently demonstrated that they are effective in reducing new HIV infections, overdose deaths, and public nuisance – and that they do not increase drug use or criminal activity. As of 2010, there were 92 such facilities operating in 61 cities around the world – and even a few behind prison walls – but none in the United States. What’s the story behind North America’s only SIF in Vancouver, efforts to establish SIFs in the Bronx and San Francisco, a new SIF-on-wheels in Denmark, and other strategies that push the envelope in harm reduction? 

Moderator: Laura Thomas, Deputy State Director, Drug Policy Alliance, San Francisco, CA

• Liz Evans, Co-director, Portland Hotel Society, Vancouver, Canada          
• Nanna W. Gotfredsen, Lawyer, The Street Lawyers/Gadejuristen, Copenhagen, Denmark            
• Fred Johnson, Syringe Exchange Program Coordinator, Citiwide Harm Reduction, Bronx, NY    
• Thomas Kerr, Director, Urban Health Research Initiative, British Columbia Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS, and Associate Professor, Dept. of Medicine, University of British Columbia 
• Alex Wodak, Director, Alcohol and Drug Services at St. Vincent's Hospital, and President, Australian Drug Law Reform Foundation, Sydney, Australia