NYC Issues Safe-Injection Guide

The New York City health department is distributing a guide to safer injection practices to thousands of heroin addicts, UPI reported Jan. 3.

The 70,000 “Take Charge, Take Care” brochures were produced at a cost of $32,000. “Our goal is to promote health and save lives with this information,” said Daliah Heller of the Bureau of Alcohol and Drug Use Prevention, Care and Treatment. “From a health perspective, there is a less harmful way to inject yourself.”

However, the brochures were criticized by John Gilbride, who heads the DEA office in New York. “To suggest there is a method of using that alleviates the dangers [of using heroin] is disturbing,” he said.