MoCSSy Program: Graduate Student Seminar Series "Rationale for Expanding North America's First and Only Supervised Injection Facility"

Abstract

This research reports on the qualitative findings from a sample of 25 purposively chosen injection drug users (IDUs) interviewed to examine the context of the safe injection site in transforming their lives. Further, the purpose is to determine whether the first and only supervised injection facility in North America, InSite, needs to be expanded to other cities. Audio recorded interviews were transcribed verbatim and analyzed thematically using NVivo 8 software. Findings suggest attending InSite has numerous positive effects on the lives of IDUs including: saving lives, reducing HIV and HCV risk behavior, decreasing injection in public, reducing public syringe disposal, reducing use of various medical resources and increasing access to nursing and other primary health services. There is also an urgent need to expand the current facility to cities where injection drug use is prevalent.