In almost 100 locations across Europe, Canada, and Australia, drug users bring their own drugs into overdose prevention centers and consume the drugs in the presence of medical staff. In more than two decades of overdose prevention center operation, no client has ever died of overdose or contracted HIV or Hepatitis C due to needle-sharing in these facilities.⁴ Bringing people who use drugs out of hiding also builds their trust in medical professionals and allows providers of other services to reach them; studies show that overdose prevention center users are more likely to enter treatment.⁵

LEAD empowers police officers to divert individuals struggling with drug addiction and other issues into intensive support programs instead of jailing them. LEAD case managers coordinate addiction and mental health treatment, health care, shelter, food, housing, and job training. Evaluations of the LEAD program in King County, WA have found that LEAD reduced recidivism, felony crime, homelessness, and unemployment.⁶

Doctors can prescribe heroin users methadone or Suboxone, replacement opioids that take away their cravings without getting them “high.” While traditional heroin treatment has a 5 to 15 percent long-term success rate,⁷ MAT program success rates exceed 50 percent.⁸ MAT brings positive benefits even when drug-dependent individuals do not quit heroin entirely – because they often still reduce their use of the drug, lowering the incidence of criminal activity and medical emergencies. Every $1 spent on MAT programs saves society between $4 and $10, and MAT reduces recidivism when offered to drug-dependent individuals behind bars.⁹ However, most drug court programs, jails, and prisons refuse to allow MAT.

HAT clinics are facilities in which medical staff assist those who have repeatedly failed treatment with administering pharmaceutical-grade heroin. Since these users no longer need $100 a day to buy their heroin from dealers, they stop stealing, selling their bodies, and dealing drugs, which reduces both crime and heroin use.¹⁰ And because the drug is tested for purity and potency and administered in safe conditions, HAT patients do not suffer overdoses or contract new HIV, Hepatitis C, or tissue infections. Once they have the opportunity to rebuild their lives, most stop using heroin—the average patient quits entirely within three years.

SEPs provide drug users with clean syringes and medical advice to reduce the transmission of HIV and Hepatitis C. While SEPs have been proven effective, critics argue that they “enable drug use.” In fact, studies show that SEPs do not encourage drug use, and that by earning the trust of drug users, SEPs become intervention points where drug users seek social services, including drug treatment.¹¹

If you are in need of a needle exchange in your area, click here

The drug naloxone (brand name: Narcan) reverses the impact of opioids on the brain, so it can be used to stop an overdose but cannot be used to get high.¹² While it is important for police and other first responders to carry naloxone, the majority of users who overdose are saved by family and friends. Providing naloxone to users and their families has been shown to reduce the overdose death rate by up to 50 percent.¹³ It is vital that while we provide naloxone to law enforcement and other first responders, we also provide it to these literal first responders.

When drug users work up the courage to seek treatment, they usually face week- or month-long waiting lists. Most relapse before they can be admitted. By greatly increasing public funding for treatment beds, cities can cut down these waiting lists, with the ultimate goal of no wait time at all—Treatment on Demand.