Free Booze For Homeless

[Lone Gunman]

Free booze makes homeless healthier?

TORONTO (Reuters) - Giving homeless alcoholics a regular supply of booze may improve their health and their behavior, the Canadian Medical Association Journal said in a study published on Tuesday.

Seventeen homeless adults, all with long and chronic histories of alcohol abuse, were allowed up to 15 glasses of wine or sherry a day -- a glass an hour from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. -- in the Ottawa-based program, which started in 2002 and is continuing.

After an average of 16 months, the number of times participants got in trouble with the law had fallen 51 percent from the three years before they joined the program, and hospital emergency room visits were down 36 percent.

"Once we give a 'small amount' of alcohol and stabilize the addiction, we are able to provide health services that lead to a reduction in the unnecessary health services they were getting before," said Dr. Jeff Turnbull, one of the authors of the report.

"The alcohol gets them in, builds the trust and then we have the opportunity to treat other medical diseases... It's about improving the quality of life."

Three of the 17 participants died during the program, succumbing to alcohol-related illnesses that might have killed them anyway, the study said.

The report showed that participants in the program drank less than they did before signing up, and their sleep, hygiene, nutrition and health levels all improved.

The per capita cost of around C$771 ($660) a month was partially offset by monthly savings of C$96 a month in emergency services, C$150 in hospital care and C$201 in police services per person.

Turnbull said some of the people enrolled in the program had stopped drinking altogether, although that was not an option for many of the participants.

"We agree 100 percent that abstinence is the most appropriate route," he said. "But in this subset of people where abstinence has failed, there is still a need to provide care."

[TexKan]

I think the Candadians have the right idea - wonder how they handle thier drug addicts - we already know who they handle thier sexual preferences group. Ya know what we do sure doesn't work - so maybe we outta take a look see. This has some really accurate points regarding alcoholism and the use of services. Course other countries have been practicing "preventive" med for years - we are just soooooo behind when it comes to medicine.

[Made in the USA]

Homeless, thanks to ex-wife! Please send my cases of beer to:

Cardboard Box
RR 69
Dodge City, Ks.. 67801
USA

[Army_of_One]

I posted this before but here's how Canada handles their drug addicts....


Canada Considers MORE heroin injection sites?!?

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Health authorities in Canada's westernmost province want to make the country's first test facility for heroin injection permanent and are considering opening additional clinics to meet the huge demand. The Vancouver facility was set up in 2003, against US opposition, as a three-year experiment exempt from Canadian drug laws.

Since then the clinic, North America's only such operation, has run at capacity, with some 800 heroin injections daily.

"It's all-round positive, with no downsides," said Perry Kendall, British Columbia province's chief medical officer.

Kendall said the clinic achieved its goal to cut overdose deaths and rates of hepatitis and HIV infection. Although its exemption from drug laws will not expire until September 2006, this month he applied to Health Canada to make the facility permanent.

With a federal election currently underway in Canada, a decision will likely take months.

The clinic looks like an innocuous storefront in Vancouvers squalid Downtown Eastside district, Canada's most impoverished neighbourhood with more than 5,000 heroin addicts concentrated in a 10-block area.

Addicts bring in drugs purchased illegally on the street, and self-inject them under medical supervision. There are onsite emergency services in case of overdose and staff nurses and counselors to provide health care and referrals to rehabilitation facilities.

Worldwide, about 50 similar clinics operate routinely, mostly in Europe.

As in Europe, Canadian public opinion has changed to view drug addiction as a health issue instead of a purely criminal matter.

But drug issues here are affected by the proximity to the United States with its official war on drugs.

The Vancouver clinic is a stone's throw from the border with Washington state, and since it opened the White House has criticized it as an "inhumane" medical experiment.

The United States also opposes a new experiment in Vancouver to give addicts free prescription heroin in hopes of reducing property crimes to feed their habit.

Ironically, the success of Vancouvers supervised heroin use site led to another controversy this month, as Vancouver police launched a crackdown on public drug use.
For years police have turned a blind eye in some areas to thousands of addicts shooting up on sidewalks, streets and in public buildings such as libraries, and leaving behind used syringes.

Police now say because addicts can use the supervised facility, they will be stopped from injecting in public.

"The police recognize drug addiction as a health issue... but police must step in when the addicts' activities interfere with other people's lives," police said in a statement.

"Children should be able to use (park playground) swings and not have to worry about pricking themselves with needles buried in the sand," said police Inspector Bob Rolls.

Advocates for drug users protested that the police crackdown is cruel because the clinic can only serve a minority of drug users.

"It's just a really destructive thing," said Ann Livingston of the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users.

She notes that the supervised site can handle just 800 of 15,000 heroin injections daily, and staff are prohibited from physically injecting addicts or letting other addicts inject incapacitated users.

There's also no place for addicts who smoke cocaine, said Livingston.

Livingston called for a relaxation in clinic rules and the establishment of at least four more clinics in Vancouver.

Kendall agreed that the fact the police crackdown is causing an overflow at the injection site "may make an argument for opening up more sites."

THIS is insane.....and the POOR, POOR cocaine addicts have no place like the heroin addicts to smoke their crack while being supervised......and just think...someone's TAXES are paying for this....

[TexKan]

Yeah but it seems to work - addiction IS a health issue.

It would never work here cause we don't view it a health issue. Course you notice it didn't say it stopped the sale of the illegal substance - they just turn thier heads on that. Don't know but what we do sure ain't workin.......