Supervised Inhalation Sites: Preventing Overdose and Reducing Health Inequities among People Who Use Drugs

Abstract

Policy and research on the implementation of services for people who inhale drugs lag behind similar efforts for people who inject drugs, limiting access to adequate harm reduction resources for people who inhale drugs. This commentary considers why supervised inhalation sites (SIS) are needed, highlights operational characteristics of four existing services, and advocates for future SIS research. Our hope is to encourage the expansion of SIS worldwide for overdose prevention and reduction of health inequities. Given the limited literature regarding SIS, more extensive study of these programs is warranted to incorporate inhalation into the implementation of supervised consumption sites to provide fair opportunities for all people who use drugs to do so safely without fear of stigma and overdose.

Keywords:

• Supervised consumption sites
• supervised inhalation sites
• drug use
• supervised injection facilities
• harm reduction

Disclosure statement

Dr. Park serves as a technical consultant for a research study funded by the Food and Drug Administration (U01FD00745501). The remaining authors have no conflicts of interest to disclose.

Additional information

Funding

This project was funded by the Providence-Boston Center for AIDS Research (P30AI042853). JNP was funded by the Center of Biomedical Research Excellence (COBRE) on Opioids and Overdose (P20GM125507). JGR was supported by a predoctoral training grant from the National Institute of Mental Health (F31MH126796). The manuscript’s contents do not represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health or the Food and Drug Administration.