Countries provide safe consumption sites to combat risks of street drugs. Would a safe suicide facility with recovery resources be equally effective?

[Praying 4 a Miracle]

Some people call them safe injection sites, and I remember thinking that governments had gone completely bananas when they first introduced them. A safe place for drug addicts to do their drugs? Are they nuts? Isn't this just going to encourage people to do more drugs?

But here we are many years later, and these safe injection sites are not only still around, but there is also rock hard proof that they are very effective at making things better, not only for drug addicts, but for their families as well.

There is much less disease transmission, far fewer overdoses and resulting deaths, and even lower consumption of drugs. They actually do work.

A very similar effect on societies would occur if they were to also provide safe and accessible facilities which provide medically assisted dying. Mainly because they would also provide recovery resources and trained staff that could and would also save many lives.

This would occur not only because of the efforts of the staff and resources at these locations, but also because people would have the knowledge that they have a safe escape hatch from their suffering, if it ever becomes completely intolerable.

This would drastically reduce the anxiety and stress that people experience when they feel trapped in their suffering. This in turn would have a huge positive effect on the overall suicide rates experienced in these communities.

Some people have physical health issues that are causing their suffering, but many are suffering strictly from psychological issues, which are seriously affected by any additional anxiety and stress in their life. To drastically reduce this anxiety is going to prevent many people from feeling desperate enough to take their own life.

For those with strictly physical issues, who would possibly still remain suicidal, it would provide a safe, humane, and peaceful way for them to escape their chronic suffering.

There would also naturally have to be a cooling off or waiting period to prevent impulse decisions, as well as a minimum of age restriction.

Less suffering and a lower overall suicide rate would mean that these facilities would be just as successful, if not more, than the current safe consumption sites that are being used to combat street drugs.

Politicians and the general public are now fully aware, that the problem of street drugs is never going to completely disappear, and the same applies to suicide. The best we can hope for is to minimize, reduce, and protect people and their families the best we can, from both of these problems.

 

[Praying 4 a Miracle]

There are many people in this forum who feel like they can recover and desperately want to (myself included). And there are also many who feel they cannot.

Either way, if people didn't feel so trapped in their suffering, the huge reduction in anxiety would do really good things for people in both camps. Many more people would successfully recover, and those who still can't, would have a safe peaceful, and humane way to escape their pain.

Every adult human being needs to have access to a safe assisted dying facility (with a minimum cooling off or waiting period to prevent impulse decisions). This would allow many more people to recover, especially if this facility also provided recovery resources and trained staff.

The current policy of forcing people to feel trapped in their suffering, causing them to attempt dangerous suicide methods, is just wrong on so many levels. Far more people will recover and NOT commit suicide at all if we provide a safe facility. It works with safe consumption sites to combat street drugs, and it will work just as well (or better) for all who are suffering chronically and are suicidal.