Some public toilets have blue lights to make it hard for heroin users to see their veins.


The use of blue lights in some public toilets is meant to make it more difficult to see the veins on the arm. The intention behind this is that by making it harder for junkies to see their veins, they won't be able to inject themselves, and therefore lowering the illegal drug problem. This can be counterproductive, though, because it results often in heroin users having worse results by missing their veins during injection. As it turns out, addicts who have a need to inject themselves will not let simple blue light stop them. The research paper at the source concludes that blue light doesn't really deter injection, but rather increases the use of riskier methods of injection.

Despite this, the method has been adopted by certain authorities, railway stations, hostels, and hotels. What's worse, blue lights introduce even more troubles than just for heroin addicts. They've reportedly made cleaning hazardous spills harder and increased the risk of trips and falls due to the lighting being poor. Essentially, all the blue lights end up doing is deterring heroin addicts from injecting in certain locations, or if they can't, they inject themselves in riskier ways. What defeats the whole idea, though, is that most new cell phones now have a flash light feature anyway. What do you think. Should public places use blue light to deter drug use?


(Source)