NDARC Technical Report No. 124 (2001)
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
- During the first six months of operation, 1503 individuals were assessed and registered to use the services at the Medically Supervised Injecting Centre.
- Registered clients made 11,237 visits to the MSIC during which their injection of drugs was supervised.
- The majority of clients were male (68%), and approximately one-third was female (31%). Male clients accounted for majority of visits (57%).
- Cocaine was the drug most frequently used at the MSIC (injected on 47% of the visits) followed closely by heroin (injected on 45% of the visits).
- The clients made an average of eight visits in the six months (range = 1 to 335). The average time spent in the MSIC per visit was approximately 30 minutes.
- On approximately one in every three visits, a health care service was provided to the clients (in addition to the supervision of their injecting), and one in 18 visits resulted in a referral for further assistance. Half of the occasions of service were injecting and vein-care advice (49%). Among the 610 referrals for further assistance, 42% were to treatment for drug dependence, 33% were to primary health-care and 25% were to social welfare services.
- Eighty-seven drug-related clinical incidents occurred at the MSIC requiring medical management (0.8% of visits). These were 50 heroin overdoses, which were managed by the administration of oxygen (naloxone was administered in eight cases), 28 cases of cocaine-related toxicity, and five benzodiazepine and four non-heroin opioid overdoses respectively.
- Eighty-eight individuals who sought use of the MSIC were not registered. Twenty-six of these individuals did not meet the registration criteria, and 62 individuals expressed the wish to use the MSIC but did not proceed to register at that time.