HIV Insight: Public Opinions About Supervised Smoking Facilities for Crack Cocaine & Other Stimulants

BACKGROUND:

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.

METHODS:

We 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.

RESULTS:

A 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.

CONCLUSIONS:

Members 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.

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By: Strike C1, Rotondi NK2, Watson TM3, Kolla G4, Bayoumi AM5,6,7,8.

1Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto, 155 College Street, Toronto, Canada. carol.strike@utoronto.ca.
2Musculoskeletal Health and Outcomes Research, Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute, St. Michael's Hospital, 30 Bond Street, Toronto, Canada. nooshin.rotondi@gmail.com.
3Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto, 155 College Street, Toronto, Canada. tara.watson@utoronto.ca.
4Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto, 155 College Street, Toronto, Canada. gillian.kolla@utoronto.ca.
5Centre for Research on Innercity Health, Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute, St. Michael's Hospital, 30 Bond Street, Toronto, Canada. ahmed.bayoumi@utoronto.ca.
6Department of Medicine, University of Toronto, 1 King's College Circle, Toronto, Canada. ahmed.bayoumi@utoronto.ca.
7Institute of Health Policy, Management, and Evaluation, University of Toronto, 155 College Street, Toronto, Canada. ahmed.bayoumi@utoronto.ca.
8Division of General Internal Medicine, St. Michael's Hospital, 30 Bond Street, Toronto, Canada. ahmed.bayoumi@utoronto.ca.
Subst Abuse Treat Prev Policy. 2016 Feb 9;11(1):8. doi: 10.1186/s13011-016-0052-7.