After stuffing myself silly at my grandmother’s house on Thanksgiving, mom and I decided we’d get on the road to Gainesville. Eight hours, three stops and one diet soda later we made it to Titletown at 4:30 a.m. Whenever my mother comes to Gainesville I try to take her to a new restaurant that she’s never experienced. She’s the office manager for a Great Events Catering in Key West and is the reason I became a foodie.

Her first night in town we decided to go to Bistro 1245, a cute little pasta place with a great wine selection. The restaurant is small and cozy, and you can see right into the open kitchen. We snuggled into our table by the window with glasses of wine and relaxed to the sweet sounds of mellow jazz. My mom is a big fan of escargot, so naturally that is what we ordered first.

The escargot was delicious in its creamy garlic sauce, and it was even better paired with the lightly toasted flatbread for a satisfying crunch. I was so smitten with the food I completely forgot to take a picture until halfway through the course.

I’m a big sucker for pasta’s with light sauces and lots of ingredients. The Roma Tomato Pasta certainly didn’t dissapoint. The dish consisted of linguini noodles in a light olive oil, large chunks of roma tomatoes, fresh mozzarella and spinach. The citrusy tang of the tomatos mixed with the mozzarella was reminiscent of tomato caprice, another one of my favorite dishes.

My mother has been watching what she eats recently, but it doesn’t stop her from enjoying her meal when she orders out. Any meal at Bistro 1245 can be deconstructed and reworked to fit your dieting needs. Mom ordered the duck sandwich with a mixed green salad and chose to forgo the breading and mix the duck into her salad with feta cheese instead.

The next night, however, neither of us was counting calories. After the Gators whooped up on the Seminoles during Tebow’s last game, mom and I decided to head to Emiliano’s one of my favorite family owned restaurants in Gainesville. The restaurant specializes in Tapas and we made sure to order plenty.

The Picadillo Empanadas were melt-in-your-mouth good. The savory flavor of the ground beef with Latin seasonings inside made the flaky outside pastry taste even better. Mom stayed away from the fried yuca frita with garlicky mojito, but I couldn’t get enough. I wasn’t a huge fan of the crab stuffed portobello, a baked portobello mushroom cap with crabmeat stuffing, topped with queso blanco and served over a calabaza-jalapeño cream sauce. The crab was a bit fishy and there were too many flavors mixed together, it tasted too jumbled. The artichokes were extremely light and creamy, and easy to pop in your mouth. The last thing we tried was one of Emiliano’s signature tapas dishes, the Churrasco, or Argentinian Flank Steak. By itself the meat was juicy and tender, and mixed with a chimichurri sauce on top the flavor was even more intense.

For more about Emiliano’s, read my restaurant review in INsite magazine here.

Change is coming.

After meeting with UF’s College of Journalism Advisory Council I’ve decided to re-vamp my blog and make it entirely food oriented. (Like it isn’t already anyway, I swear all I write about is food.) The multimedia editor for The Miami Herald suggested it and I love the idea. I still need to do some more research, but I’m thinking entries will include food reviews, my own recipes and of course yummy looking photos. Be on the lookout!

Yesterday I went to Reggae Shack Cafe on University Avenue, and wow was I impressed. Not only are all of their vegetarian dishes 100 percent vegan, but they have tasty burgers and authentic Jamaican food to boot. My favorite dish was actually a dessert. Hush puppies with milk chocolate, white chocolate, condensed milk, caramel and butterscotch make the Dolce de Leche Festival melt slowly on your tongue as you taste the sugar rush. And whatever is in their Tropic-Q sauce. Whoooo-eee! I tasted it on their Tropi-Q Burger and Roughneck Chicken Sandwich and man does it add to the flavor. Look out for my review on it in INsite magazine.

O UOL acaba de comprar a carteira da Insite, uma das maiores provedoras de hospedagem de sites do Brasil, com 55 000 clientes.

Por Lauro Jardim

Antes de iniciar o artigo quero deixar explícito (calma, não é nada pornográfico) a minha admiração por essa figura que é o Marcelo Vitorino, o “Urso”. Sei também que a ideia de dar vida a essa incrível plataforma de mobilização social batizada de “Doe mais que um clique”. O projeto conta com outra mãozinha de uma das pessoas mais conhecidas na blogosfera, Edney Souza (fundador do Interney Blogs).

Em um artigo publicado em seu blog recentemente, o “Urso” explica de forma bastante clara como surgiu a idéia da plataforma, e cita algumas empresas que contribuiram para que tudo se tornasse realidade, como a Pulso Comunicação, que doou a programação, a Polvora!, que doou a personalização dos canais, a Insight Publicidade, que doou o layout, a Insite, doou a hospedagem e o Hospital 9 de Julho, que cedeu um de seus profissinais responsáveis de hematologia para conceder uma entrevista.

Enfim, a proposta está aí! Quem possuir um blog, ou outro canal web onde possa contribuir para a iniciativa divulgando, com certeza todos aqueles que precisam, ou irão um dia precisar desse líquido tao vital para a sobrevivência humana, ficam agradecidos desde já. Assim, não basta apenas uma simples divulgação, ou seja, vá além e também doe sangue!

Veja abaixo se você atende aos requisitos necessários para doar sangue:

• Você deve ter mais de 18 e menos de 65 anos
• Seu peso deve ser superior a 50 kg
• Se homem, deve ter doado há mais de 60 dias
• Se mulher, deve ter doado há mais de 90 dias; não estar grávida; não estar amamentando; já terem se passado pelo menos 3 meses de parto ou aborto
• Se você não teve Hepatite após os 10 anos de idade
• Se você não teve contato com o inseto barbeiro, transmissor da Doença de Chagas
• Se você não teve malária ou esteve em região de malária nos últimos 6 meses
• Se você não sofre de Epilepsia
• Se você não tem ou teve Sífilis
• Se você não é Diabético
• Se você não tem tatuagens recentes (menos de 1 ano)
• Se você não recebeu transfusão de sangue ou hemoderivados nos últimos 10 anos
• Se você não tiver ingerido bebidas alcoólicas nas 24hs que antecedem a doação
• Se você estiver alimentado e com intervalo mínimo de 2 horas após a re 
• Se você dormiu pelo menos 6hs nas 24hs que antecedem a doação
• Se você tiver comportamentos que evitem contrair o vírus da AIDS, tais como:
• sempre usar preservativos em relações sexuais
• não ter tido mais de dois parceiros sexuais nos últimos 3 meses
• não usar drogas injetáveis

Antes da doação você passará por uma entrevista de triagem clínica, na qual podem ser detectadas algumas condições adicionais que possam impedir sua doação. Após cada doação serão realizados os seguintes exames em seu sangue:

• Tipagem sangüínea ABO e Rh
• Pesquisa de anticorpos eritrocitários irregulares
• Teste de Coombs Direto
• Fenotipagem do Sistema Rh Hr (D, C, E, c, e) , Fenotipagem de outros sistemas.
• Testes sorológicos para: Hepatite B, Hepatite C, Doença de Chagas, Sífilis, HIV (AIDS), HTLV I/II

Sempre que você doar sangue serão feitos todos esses testes e você receberá o resultado em cada doação. Caso haja qualquer alteração no resultado dos testes sorológicos talvez seja necessário repetir os exames. Lembre-se que esses testes tem o objetivo de triagem e não de diagnóstico e que, como em qualquer exame laboratorial, podem ocorrer resultados falsos-positivos. Assim, o eventual resultado não negativo para um ou mais testes não deverá ser interpretado como diagnóstico. Portanto, se você for convocado para orientação médica ou mesmo para repetição de exames, não deve se preocupar. Em geral a doação traz poucos riscos para o doador. Porém, eventualmente, alguns doadores podem apresentar reações adversas, tais como:

• Queda passageira de pressão arterial
• Hematoma no local da punção
• Náusea

Fonte: Banco Paulista de Sangue

Artigo relacionado:
Ignorância: uma das barreiras para a doação de sangue

Излязлата наскоро версия на InSite Prepress Portal и InSite Storefront – 5.5.3 вече поддържа работа и на български език.Това стана възможно благодарение на усилията на Kodak, който ика да улесни българските си потребители в комуникацията им с клиентите. В същото време България е една от водещите европейски страни по брой инсталации на InSite Prepress Portal и InSite Storefront. От друга страна, Kodak е може би единственият водещ производител на специализиран софтуер, който превежда свой продукт за печатна комуникация на български език.Ъпдейтът до версия 5.5.3 е безплатен за всички потребители на InSite от версия 5.0 до 5.5.2. Наличните инсталации на InSite с по-стара версия трябва да се ъпгрейдват чрез заплащане.

Какво е новото в InSite 5.5.3:

• Подобрения в използването на RBA (rules-based automation;
• Допълнително поддържани езици – български и турски;
• Нови възможности за къстамизация на изпращаните e-mail-и;
• Color Target Manager вече поддържа и LAB стойности;
• Възможност за повторна поръчка на вече направена такава;
• Даване на публичен достъп за определени продукти;
• Възможност за регистрация в InSite от крайния потребител;
• Изчисляването на сроковете за поръчките отчита уикендите и почивните дни;
• Подобрения в изготвянето на продуктови шаблони;
• Опростен уеб-базиран интерфейс за ценообразуване;
• Цената за доставка се определя на база поръчка, а не на база продукт.
• Повече налични рапорти (доклади);

♫ : Insite

Y Aveces Sueles Olvidarte De Que Existo…

Whew!

Sorry I have been a bit absent recently. Life seems to be on fast forward at the moment– there definitely aren’t enough hours in the day. Between classes, traveling and writing I haven’t stopped.

I guess I should probably start with Friday night. After a delicious meal at Emiliano’s (paella, sangria, hummus and fried meat plantains.. yum!) I reviewed Silversun Pickups and An Horse at The Venue. So amazing. Check out my review for INsite here.

Saturday I loaded up the car with my best friends and headed to Orlando to visit my family. We went to Cirque du Soleil’s La Nouba Saturday night and Halloween Horror Nights on Sunday.

My dad works for Cirque, so I have seen the show quite a lot the last 10 years. Saturday night, however, the show surprised me. The trapeze net got stuck and the final trampoline act was unable to perform. The Diablo girls dropped their diablos. And, one of the passes across the trapeze didn’t stick. I understand nothing is ever perfect, but I have never seen that many errors in one show.

I have attended Halloween Horror Nights almost every year since 1997. This year didn’t disappoint, even though I wasn’t too impressed with Bill & Ted’s Excellent Halloween Adventure.

I got back to Gainesville yesterday morning just in time to make it to work. Now, I have dance and a management test tonight.

This weekend we play LSU. Stay tuned for roadtrip hilarity (I’m traveling in an RV with five other people) and I promise to quit being MIA.

Molly, Deanna & I with Wolverine!

Rice Krispie with peanut butter cups!

True story

I’m on Cloud 9 and I don’t want to get off.

I just got back from a glorious 5-day trip to New York City, I woke up to breakfast in bed this morning and I seem to be all caught up with my school work. How this is possible, I just don’t know.

Sunset from Broad Channel, Queens.

View of NYC from a crane at the docks

And, now for even better news… DUN DUN DUN… I get to interview Silversun Pickups! (Eeek!) When I found out it took all of my restraint and willpower to literally not pee pee my pants, as my mother would say. They are playing this weekend at The Venue and I am covering the event for INsite’s blog.

Last night I made a feast inspired by my “How-To Cook Fish” article that was published last week in The Independent Florida Alligator. Grouper, wild rice, black beans and vanilla cake. Don’t like it fried? Check out my article to see other yummy ways to cook filets: 5 Ways to Cook Fish at Home

The author of Vancouver’s ground-breaking Four Pillars drug strategy criticized the federal government’s “utterly failed” approach to drug use in his resignation notice this week.

Donald MacPherson said in an e-mail Tuesday to city staff: “[T]he approach to the drug problem that we have in Canada . . . [a] war-on-drugs approach has utterly failed over the past 40 years and must come to an end.

“The emperor truly has no clothes in this case,” said his e-mail.

“People who use drugs should not be criminalized, especially those that develop addictions and/or have mental-health problems or are vulnerable in some other way.” MacPherson said he was resigning after 12 years as the city’s drug-policy co-ordinator — the only municipal position of its kind in Canada — “for personal reasons.” “It is time for me to move on to the next adventure and to act on the strong desire to move beyond the municipal realm, build on what we have achieved here in Vancouver and work for policy change at the provincial, national and international level in the area of drug policy,” he wrote.

MacPherson blamed the criminalization of drugs for social ills and associated problems.

“Much of what plays out on the streets of Vancouver in the never-sleeping drug market — the selling, the using, the killing, the infections, the dying and the property crime — is a direct result of the criminalization of drugs,” said the e-mail.

“The nonsensical and seemingly never-ending struggle to keep a small program like Insite open for a population of seriously marginalized and at-risk injection drug users is another example of the counterproductive consequences of bad public policy at the federal level.” Four Pillars was struck as a comprehensive approach to reducing drug-overdose deaths and HIV infection caused by illegal drugs. It combines prevention, treatment, enforcement and harm reduction.

The approach has involved much debate. Insite, Vancouver’s safe-injection site, has drawn particular heat. It operates under an exemption from federal drug laws from Health Canada, but has received little support from the ruling minority Conservative government.

Vancouver Coun. Kerry Jang said MacPherson’s Four Pillars approach will remain central to Vancouver’s housing and social programs.

Jang said council has yet to decide whether to replace MacPherson. His resignation takes effect Oct. 2.

aivens@theprovince.com

♫ : Insite

Si Tan Solo Te Tuviera En Otra Vida Tal Vez, Todo Estaría Mejor Entre Tu Y Yo, Y Jamás Se Hubiera Roto Un Corazón

On Thursday morning Jordan had the pleasure of interviewing two fantastic ladies from the IN:SITE Milwaukee public art project. IN:SITE Director and Chair Pegi Christiansen and Milwaukee artist Annushka Peck stopped by the station to tell Milwaukee a little more about the Park East Corridor Project.

During this sumer IN:SITE is transforming the Park East Corridor, an area where a freeway spur was removed downtown. The project will culminate in 11 installations on 16 blocks of the 29-block area.
Annushka spoke of here eye catching peice entittled CEDE.

Her approach to this unique piece really sums up the idea of the IN:SITE project. Taking a space thathas been quickly forgotten in the absesnce of development, and getting Milwaukee residents to stop and really take a deeper look at the city we live in.
Here is Jordan’s interview with Pegi and Annushka…

Recently it has come to light that hotels are posting rave reviews about themselves on TripAdvisor – a very well known site where folks go to get the latest information on hotels or other information they are seeking when planning a trip.

You can read the USA Today article here.

This allows me to once again talk about the amazing benefits of using HelmsBriscoe for site selection.  We have over 1000 associates around the world.  We have an internal message board type system, if we need information, we can ask a question and that question immediately goes to all of our associates around the world.  Not only does this allow us to work with our colleagues globally in order to plan meetings for corporations and associations wherever they would like to go; but it also gives us the most honest and up to date information on hotels, destinations, contract issues, contacts, etc.

Here is an example of our page, and all of the resources we have access to:

Just another way we work to help our clients have the best meetings possible!

There’s a story in the Toronto Star suggesting that the city of Toronto is looking at setting a safe injection site for intravenous drug users akin to Insite in Vancouver. While Insite enjoys broad support in BC, the Conservatives appear to revile it and the RCMP attempted to smear it. The consensus is that safe injection sites do appear to extend the lives of drug-users and, it would seem, give them an opportunity to come into contact with those that could provide them with the resources to get clean. From an ideological perspective though, Harper’s gang seems more interested in viewing drug use as a moral weakness and punishing users for this.

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Property Solutions and SatisFacts Research Announce Strategic Alliance

July 7, 2009

Property Solutions® (www.propertysolutions.com) and SatisFacts Research (www.satisfacts.com) are pleased to announce that an agreement has been reached to create a new strategic alliance.  This alliance includes several components.  Property Solutions will offer SatisFacts’ Insite™ touchpoint customer service modules as a robust resident and prospect feedback system to integrate into their property and prospect portals.  In addition, each firm will cross-promote the other’s services so as to offer multifamily operators a comprehensive resident and prospect communication solution.

Property Solutions® is the nation`s largest provider of apartment community web sites, providing property management tools to management companies in all 50 states, ranging in size from 50,000 units or more under management to less than 100 units.  Their robust product suite includes the Resident Portal™, Resident Pay™ and Prospect Portal™ tools.  Property Solutions® employs a dynamic team of software developers, technical support staff, and account representatives, all dedicated to creating and implementing the best property management tools available.

SatisFacts Research has worked with over one million units and serves as a satisfaction research and retention partner for the multifamily industry.  SatisFacts offers a suite of powerful Resident Relationship Management Services™ including overall performance assessment programs, the Insite™ 24/7 customer service feedback system, as well as the tools and support needed to help clients significantly enhance performance by reducing costly, controllable turnover.  The Insite™ Move-In, Work Order Follow Up, Pre-Renewal, In-Touch and Unclosed Traffic programs are a cost effective, 24/7, 365 day/year customer service safety net.

Property Solutions president Ben Zimmer stated, “This was a very logical alliance for us.  Both firms specialize in robust, state-of-the-art systems intended to dramatically enhance communications between residents, prospects and the community staff – with the end result being enhanced performance.  We wanted our portals to be able to offer the most robust feedback system.  Being able to incorporate SatisFacts’ Insite™ product line into our portal systems offers several benefits to our clients and their residents.  Given our commitment to excellence, that meant we needed to align ourselves with the best-of-breed satisfaction feedback provider in multifamily.  That choice was clearly SatisFacts.  Much more than offering a quality product, they are as passionate as we are about delivering value and service, and creating partnerships with their clients.  That plus their nationally recognized brand and well established integrity made the decision easy for us.”

Doug Miller, president and founder of SatisFacts, added, “Property Solutions® is the premier player in a critical space within the multifamily industry.  Our research has shown the immense retention and marketing value of a comprehensive property online strategy.  Both residents and prospective residents want what all of us desire – access to service 24/7.  Residents want to be able to submit service requests, pay rent and reach out to the office staff…when they want to.  Prospects likewise want to be able to shop…when they want to.  Property Solutions™ is the tier one provider in this critical space, with a product that provides all of the functionality needed, created and managed expertly, and backed up by a company-wide culture of providing outstanding service.  Our products mesh beautifully, we both are focused on opening the doors of communication between properties and their customers, both of us are driven to provide the finest service possible, and our core values are beyond comparable.  We are very excited about this marriage.”

Property Solutions® product suite consists of Resident Portal™, Resident Pay™ and Prospect Portal™ tools, all of which enhance the ability for properties to offer unsurpassed communication and online services to both residents and prospects.  For more information, contact Ben Zimmer, President, Property Solutions International, O: 877.826.9700 x503, E: bzimmer@propertysolutions.com, W: www.propertysolutions.com.

SatisFacts offers Annual Resident Satisfaction Surveys, Insite™ Online Touchpoint Feedback Programs, Takeover and Red Flag Property Surveys, Education Programs, Custom Studies, Consulting Services as well as Employee, Owner / Client, and Association Member Satisfaction Surveys,.  For additional information, contact Doug Miller, President, SatisFacts Research, O: 866.655.1490 x100, C: 410.598.1400, E: dmiller@satisfacts.com, W: www.satisfacts.com.

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In this episode I take a closer look at the safe injection facility called InSite. After speaking with various stakeholders that support InSite I am even more convinced that this facility is efficient & effective and should be kept open. The government should also open similar establishments all across Canada. Special guest Omar Ha-Redeye has written a related on article on InSite and I encourage you to check it out: http://lawiscool.com/2009/05/17/1593

For more information on InSite visit: http://vch.ca/sis

Enjoy!

http://LiberalMinute.ca

With the DTES comprising such a large concentration of substance abuse and injection drug users, its no wonder its home to addiction treatment considered novel and experimental. The most well known is Insite- the legal safe injection site operated by Vancouver Coastal Health and openly supported by the City of Vancouver, the Vancouver Police Department, and other community bodies and professionals in the field of addiction.

Insite is a North America’s first legal safe injection site where  people can go to inject their own drugs and connect to addiction, health care and community services. For many injection drug users, Insite is the first step to recovery by reaching out to a hard to reach, marginalized population. It currently operates under a constitutional exception to the Controlled Drug and Substances Act; the BC Supreme Court ruled in May that the federal government does not have the authority to shut down Insite and gave the government until a year to amend the country’s drug laws to allow for medical use of drugs if tied to a health care initiative. The federal government is currently appealing that decision.

Research has shown that Insite is effective in preventing the loss of life from overdoses, decreasing needle sharing and other risky behaviors amongst local intravenous drug users, increasing the access and uptake of addiction treatment and decreasing public injection and injection-related disorder. A May 2008 poll found that of over 200 overdose annually there were no fatalities and that Insite users were twice as likely to engage in addiction and health services than non-Insite users. According to the BC Center for Excellence in HIV/AIDS, the body that conducts independent research on Insite to examine its impact, they found among other things:

• Insite is leading to increased uptake into detoxification programs and addiction treatment. (New England Journal of Medicine)
• Insite has not led to an increase in drug-related crime, rates of arrest for drug trafficking, assaults and robbery were similar after the facility’s opening and rates of vehicle break-ins/theft declined significantly. (Substance Abuse Treatment, Prevention, and Policy)
• Insite has reduced the number of people injecting in public and the amount of injection-related litter in the Downtown Eastside. (Canadian Medical Association Journal)
• Insite is attracting the highest-risk users – those more likely to be vulnerable to HIV infection and overdose, and who were contributing to problems of public drug use and unsafe syringe disposal. (American Journal of Preventive Medicine)

The effectiveness and relevance of Vancouver’s Insite safe injection site is a much debated topic. The evidence presented in favor of the safe injection site is heavily focused on getting addicts and drug related materials off the streets, decreasing overdose deaths and injection associated disease spread, improving users’ overall health, and providing an outlet for the most hard to reach to access help and treatment services- the pinnacle of harm reduction. Although controversial and experimental, Insite is a radical transformational approach to addiction by actively changing the community and the way addicts think about their lives and addictions, and how they live. Insite seeks to transform the lives of a marginalized population in a stepwise manner- first by improving their health conditions then facilitating access to help and treatment followed by integration into the array of programs Vancouver Coastal Health (VCH) operates such as societal reintegration.

The integration of Insite with VCH and its comprehensive services as well as the community support for the safe injection site (Police, City Hall, professionals, etc) contribute to its overall impact and effectiveness at addressing addiction in the DTES. This integration with a host of other addiction services also creates a sustainable solution by providing a long term means of supporting and maintaining the change.  Insite’s success and benefits as an experimental approach to addiction also greatly increase its impact around the world to other areas with addiction. Its scale is effective as Instie’s programs reach those most affected and of the greatest need.

This novel approach to addiction and its residual effects in the DTES appears to be making strides into treatment of drug addiction. These types of experimental treatments for addiction are what is needed over traditional enforcement methods- a view that is increasing in research support.

Onsite is an addition to Insite where the injection users can turn to should they ever decide to quit using. It is located on the second floor of the same building, and consists of 12 detoxification rooms (each with its own bathroom). The facility also includes a common room and kitchen, and is staffed with nurses, doctors, and counsellors for their various services. Onsite incorporates a methadone program and enforces standard rules; like any other detox facility, drug use is prohibited and can result in withdrawal from the program.

I feel that the addiction of Onsite to Insite reinforces the goals of this organization. As I have stated in one of my previous posts (CBC’s Fifth Estate: “Staying Alive”), the point of Insite is not to encourage or increase drug use, but to ensure that the drug users are safe and directed away from crime and disease. Those who are looking for a way out can finally be a step closer to it-or in this case, a flight of stairs closer. In addition, up another flight of stairs is a temporary shelter which houses 18 rooms, for those who need a night away from the madness on the streets, or have nowhere else to go. When I discovered this, I questioned whether many drug users overstay their welcome at Onsite; however, I quickly answered my own question when I re-evaluated the power of addiction. I feel that many users probably do not stay long; instead they are probably already looking for the next fix first thing in the morning.

I am not sure whether these resources are adequate for the number of users out there; 12 detox beds and 18 temporary shelter beds seem like a small number, but you have to start somewhere. If all of those detox rooms are filled, there is potential that there are 12 less users on the street, and therefore potential of getting 12 users off the streets and off the drugs (though this may be unlikely because of relapse, one cannot help but think of the best case senario.) Even if half of those users stayed clean, it is a start. If you don’t offer anything at all, then nothing is done (sounds redundant, but true). And sometimes the power of suggestion goes a long way.

The city of Montreal has toyed with the idea of hosting the second safe-injection site in North America, and the proposal gained steam after an announcement by former Quebec Health Minister Philippe Couillard last June. Unfortunately his replacement, Yves Bolduc, has delayed plans with vague excuses calling for more information and studies.

Insite, operating in Vancouver for the past five years, is currently the only safe injection site in North America.

Safe injection sites do more than provide shelter for drug users, they turn the drug debate on its head. By shifting the emphasis to health care and medical services, safe injection sites create an important paradigm shift: intravenous drug users are not ingrates or criminals, they are sick.

Drug users are dealing with an illness that is extremely difficult to treat without a proper support network. These are people whose lifestyles fall so far from acceptable societal norms that they fall victim to judgments that exclude them from rights and privileges that most people take for granted.

What do the words “drug addict” normally bring to mind? The unwashed, unshaven man sitting on a street corner yelling incomprehensible babble to no one in particular may be the most visible sign, but he is not the only drug addict in our community.

People suffering from prescription drug addictions are provided with hospitalization, treatment facilities, counseling and sympathy. In a word: dignity.

Whether they live in glass towers, behind white picket fences or in dumps, people from all socio-economic backgrounds abuse illegal drugs—some just have the money to cover up their dirty little habit.

Insite describes those using the centre as “men and women who use more than one drug; people who experience both addiction and mental illness; people with a history of trauma; people who are homeless, live in shelters or live in substandard housing; men and women of Aboriginal descent; and people who have tried unsuccessfully in the past to beat their drug addiction.”

Injection site users are also the most marginalized and most vulnerable members of society, unable to support their addictions safely, they are in no position to provide a safe place to inject their drugs themselves.

A safe-injection site doesn’t provide a direct route to rehabilitation—that has yet to me discovered—but it is, as proponents argue, a point of entry into seeking other medical services.

Who can blame disadvantaged drug users? A distrust of the society that’s marginalizing you is only natural, so in providing a judgment-free facility where those in need can use the services they need, a trust for medical treatment can be fostered.

A safe injection site is a step further than a needle exchange. Users are permitted to bring in their own drugs to inject, with no legal implications for the possession of these drugs. Nurses are on staff to supervise and prevent complications or death by overdose. Counseling and rehabilitation services are made available to those seeking them, but those who aren’t ready to accept help are still protected from doing themselves serious and further harm.

originally published in The Link.