Renaming safe consumption sites may increase public support

A study conducted by researchers at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health has found that renaming “safe consumption sites” to “opioid prevention sites” increases their public support. The findings were published in the September issue of the American Journal of Public Health.  

In their study, the researchers at Johns Hopkins conducted national surveys with over 1,000 respondents and found that 29% of respondents were in favor of “safe consumption sites,” while 45% were supportive of “overdose prevention sites” when all other language was identical. The study builds on previous research finding that the way an issue is framed makes a difference when trying to garner public support for evidence-based approaches to public health issues.

Safe consumption sites, also called “supervised consumption sites,” are legally sanctioned locations where individuals can use preobtained drugs intravenously under medical supervision. These sites are part of a harm-reduction approach to address the ongoing opioid epidemic being considered in locations such as San Francisco, Seattle, Baltimore, and Philadelphia .

Similar sites are operating in Canada and Western Europe, and according to the study, such locations have been shown to decrease the harm of opioid use, reduce deaths, reduce HIV and hepatitis C infection, and lower public syringe disposal rates without leading to increases in drug use or crime in surrounding neighborhoods. Safe consumption sites have not been used in the U.S. in part because of low public support.

Opioid overdoses are the leading cause of injury-related death in the U.S. According to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data, more than 49,000 individuals died from opioid overdose in 2017, a significant increase over the last two years, including a rapidly rising number of overdose deaths from synthetic opioids, specifically fentanyl.

To reduce deaths from overdose, some communities are turning to harm-reduction strategies to address overdose prevention. The Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, for example, has been looking into safe consumption sites, but to date all proposed sites in the U.S. are still seeking legislative approval.

The Johns Hopkins study also supports these strategies, asserting that in addition to preventing overdoes deaths, supervised consumption sites offer other health and social services, connecting individuals to treatment options and medical care.