Clean Needles Saving Lives, CO Now Agrees

Few venture into the downtown eastside of Vancouver, BC, except drug addicts. But these addicts do have a place to go for help.

Dr. Gabor Mate and a team of other doctors and nurses worked at a clinic in Vancouver called INSITE. Among other things, INSITE has a supervised injection site where addicts can get clean needles, sterile water and sterile cotton. Mate worked on the second floor detox facility called ONSITE before taking his newest book and theories on the road. He has been speaking all over North America for the last 18 months. Look below for the read more link!


Mate believes there are two main opinions in North America about addiction. The first is that drug addiction is a choice and the second is that it is a disease and genetic.

“The problem with both of these is they leave out the consideration of social conditions,” said Mate.

“The third way to look at it is a biopsychosocial perspective,” said Mate, “it’s the only humane and common sense approach.”

The biopsychosocial approach is actually just what it sounds like. Mind, body and soul. Mate believes the reason people become addicts is basically from very early childhood stress. In the first couple of years the brain is developing at a tremendous rate, sometimes making a million new connections a second. Disruption during this time creates tremendous stress on a child and the disruption usually comes from stressed out parents.

“All addictions are self-medication,” says Mate.

Whatever the stress caused is what addicts are medicating. Stimulant addicts are usually medicating attention deficit hyperactive disorder. The stimulants actually create focus and calm down a person with ADHD. Opiate or depressant addicts are usually treating some kind of post traumatic stress disorder. The opiates allow them to “numb out” and help to forget about the traumatic experience.

“America is the fattest country in the world because it is the most stressed,” said Mate.

50 percent of American children have some kind of mental illness today and Mate believes the root cause is always early childhood stress.

Mate is a huge advocate for harm reduction for addicts. The basic principle of harm reduction is to lower the risk to the addict whether it is clean needles for injection users or methadone for opiate addicts.

“It’s one thing to be addicted, but it’s another thing to have HIV.” said Mate, “A clean needle can be the difference.”

The Harm Reduction Action Center in Colorado is trying to get laws relaxed on harm reduction for addicts. Many places in the U.S. have syringe exchanges for addicts to bring in old dirty needles and get clean new ones. This was illegal in Colorado until May of 2010. The bill was brought forth by the Harm Reduction Action Center.

“We were able to get a bill passed that allows legalized syringe exchange in Colorado,” said Andrew McClure, advocate and volunteer for the Harm Reduction Action Center, “It was a huge victory for us and harm reduction for addicts in Colorado because, trust me, we are not lacking in addicts.”

Looking at McClure you may think he is still an addict with all the tattoos, piercings and dreadlocks but after five years clean and sober, McClure definitely understands the need for harm reduction in Colorado.

“Dr. Mate is a huge inspiration to us and what we are trying to do,” said McClure. “What a great advocate to have on our side.”

The Canadian government now wants to shut down the INSITE program and follow more in America’s footsteps with imprisoning drug addicts instead of offering help. Places like Colorado are just now realizing the positive effects that harm reduction and the support and compassion of people can have on the addicted, maybe taking the place of other failing programs.