Even Svante L. Myrick, the mayor of this city, thought the proposal sounded a little crazy, though it was put forth by a committee he had appointed. The plan called for establishing a site where people could legally shoot heroin ”” something that does not exist anywhere in the United States.
“Heroin is bad, and injecting heroin is bad, so how could supervised heroin injection be a good thing?” Mr. Myrick, a Democrat, said.
But he also knew he had to do something drastic to confront the scourge of heroin in his city in central New York. So he was willing to take a chance and embrace the radical notion, knowing well that it would provoke a backlash.
And it has.
Heroin use is ultimately fatal unless the addict is whole-heartedly willing to spend the months and years it takes to fight the addiction and then stay away from former habits. I have watched serial saves with Narcan/naloxone of overdoses on bedroom floors and living room couches turn into delayed funerals from the same apartments weeks later. I have watched people wean off heroin and then methadone only to relapse, sometimes at the point of “graduating” from recovery programs. Once during a celebratory fix the day before discharge, with photos of the kids and letters of encouragement on the walls bearing witness to lost hope of that fatal decision.
I wish this program the best, heroin is a horrible addiction. The program, though, needs to be honest and open regarding the success/failure rate so that everyone can learn something. I fear political designs will not allow for that.
Snark hat on: Ithaca and radical are synonyms, so as far as the mayor taking a chance of alienating his base, not so much.