S.F. needs injection rooms for junkies

"What the f--- are you looking at? Go away," the middle-aged female junkie yelled at me this morning. She and her male junkie friend were stooped down between two parked cars trying to find viens so they could shoot up drugs.

I was on the street with my picker-upper device gathering the trash on my block, including two used needles, which had been left by other junkies overnight. Yes, I was a bit shocked that these two junkies were brazenly about to inject themselves with drugs on the street, in broad daylight.

"Why don't you go somewhere else and shoot up? And wherever you go to shoot up, remember to take your works with you," I replied to the junkies.

They did their business, then went on their way, taking their needles with them.

As they walked away, it dawned on me that it may be time for San Francisco to consider establishing injection rooms for junkies to use, especially those who are homeless. I mean, if you're homeless and a junkie, what options for shooting up, somewhere other than the streets, do you have?

I believe injection rooms started in Australia, perhaps in Melbourne and Perth, with a few in Canada. The thinking behind setting up the injection rooms was that junkies needed a safe place to shoot up and without condoning such behavior, these governments set up the rooms to keep such behavior off the streets and to conduct outreach to junkies about HIV, hep, detox treatments, etc.

Some studies have been conducted on these injection rooms and supposedly the rooms do not lead to increases in crime, drug use, HIV infections and other diseases.

I am not necessarily 100% in favor of such injection rooms for junkies in SF, but I am sick and tired of finding used needles on my block and now watching junkies shoot up in the daytime. I think it's time we consider injection rooms as a way to with shooting up on the streets, or in the public toilets.

Since SF every two weeks has the BOS declare a medical emergency to circumvent laws against distributing needles, we might be wise to go a few steps further and open injection rooms, say in the Tenderloin and Mission districts. Having such rooms might make it easier for outreach workers to connect with the junkies and to make sure they use safe drug practices, also known as harm reduction.

I ask myself, is it better to have junkies shooting up on the streets, sometimes leaving their needles behind and without any supervision from health officials, or, should be start some injection rooms to better monitor junkies. I support the latter, if only to try a way to get used city-funded needles off my block and to get junkies into the system.

One other benefit to injection rooms is that if a junkie od's, there are professional health care workers to deal with the crisis. You may recall that junkies od'ing in SF was such a problem last year that SF DPH put up billboards on 6th Street advising junkies to fix with a friend, in case anything went wrong.

Frankly, I don't think it really solves the junkies on the streets shooting up problem to just give them city-funded needles. There ought to be injection rooms they can use.

Michael Petrelis
San Francisco, CA