Should there be supervised injection sites to help reduce overdose deaths? Elizabeth Tracey reports

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In the midst of rising overdose deaths, Spain and a few other countries implemented supervised injection sites so overdoses could be reversed right away, and sure enough, deaths fell. Now the state of Rhode Island has become the first state to approve such a measure. Eric Strain, a substance use disorders expert at Johns Hopkins, comments.

Strain: I fear that our next pivot will be to ‘well, because methadone, buprenorphine and naltrexone aren’t working, we need to offer people safe injection facilities with heroin. And I’m not convinced that that’s the solution. It’s hard for me to see them as making much of an impact. I’m not convinced that they will really help people to move into having purpose and meaning in their lives.   :29

Strain says substance use disorders require an array of interventions to enable people to overcome addiction, and he’s concerned that the supervised injection sites are a stop gap measure. At Johns Hopkins, I’m Elizabeth Tracey.