Public opinions about supervised smoking facilities for crack cocaine and other stimulants

Carol Strike,Ahmed M. Bayoumi,Tara Marie Watson,Gillian Kolla,Nooshin Khobzi Rotondi

doi:10.1186/s13011-016-0052-7

Abstract

BackgroundThe purpose of this study was to estimate awareness and opinions about supervised smoking facilities (SSFs) for smoking crack cocaine and other stimulants and make comparisons with awareness and opinions about supervised injection facilities (SIFs) in Ontario, Canada.MethodsWe used data from a 2009 telephone survey of a representative adult sample. The survey asked about awareness of, and level of support for, the implementation of SSFs and SIFs. Data were analysed using statistical models for complex survey data, which account for stratified sampling and incorporate sampling weights.ResultsA total of 1035 participated in the survey. Significantly fewer had knowledge about SSFs (17.9 %) than about SIFs (57.6 %). Fewer strongly agreed with implementation of SSFs (19.6 %) than SIFs (28.3 %). Just over half (51.1 %) of participants somewhat agreed or disagreed, 15.7 % strongly agreed, and 10.6 % strongly disagreed with implementing both SSFs and SIFs.ConclusionsMembers of the public in Ontario had little knowledge of SSFs compared to SIFs. Recent federal government changes in Canada may provide the leadership environment necessary to ensure that innovative, evidence-based harm reduction programs such as SSFs are developed and implemented.

Highlights

The purpose of this study was to estimate awareness and opinions about supervised smoking facilities (SSFs) for smoking crack cocaine and other stimulants and make comparisons with awareness and opinions about supervised injection facilities (SIFs) in Ontario, Canada
Supervised injection facilities (SIFs) are a common type of consumption facility and a programmatic innovation with the goal of addressing injection-related harms and risks, including: reducing transmission of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), hepatitis C virus (HCV), and other blood-borne infections; decreasing morbidity, overdose and mortality associated with public drug use; minimising public disturbances and drug-related litter; and increasing contact between people who use drugs and health and social services [5,6,7]
Using complex survey designs to estimate proportions, significantly fewer participants had ever read, seen or heard any information about SSFs (17.9 %, 95 % CI 15.1 % to 21.1 %) than SIFs (57.6 %, 95 % CI 53.9 % to 61.2 %); the difference was 39.7 %

Summary

Introduction

The purpose of this study was to estimate awareness and opinions about supervised smoking facilities (SSFs) for smoking crack cocaine and other stimulants and make comparisons with awareness and opinions about supervised injection facilities (SIFs) in Ontario, Canada. There have been increasing calls to base drug policy and programming on evidence instead of ideology [3], including for example the implementation of supervised consumption facilities These programs have been implemented in some countries to provide a Supervised injection facilities (SIFs) are a common type of consumption facility and a programmatic innovation with the goal of addressing injection-related harms and risks, including: reducing transmission of HIV, hepatitis C virus (HCV), and other blood-borne infections; decreasing morbidity, overdose and mortality associated with public drug use; minimising public disturbances and drug-related litter; and increasing contact between people who use drugs and health and social services [5,6,7]. A large and growing literature from Australia, Europe, and Canada has demonstrated numerous benefits of SIFs [10,11,12,13,14,15,16]

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