New York City, Rhode Island, and Now Minnesota Defy the “Crack House Statute”

Jeffrey A. SingerMinnesota Governor Tim Walz signedSenate File 2974, the Omnibus Human Services appropriations bill into law on Wednesday, May 24. Among the most notable features of the spending bill is that itappropriates $55.49 million in one ‐​time grants in 2024 for:[O]rganizations to establish safe recovery sites that offer harm reduction services and supplies,including but not limited to safe injection spaces; sterile needle exchange; naloxone rescue kits; fentanyl and other drug testing; street outreach; educational and referral services; health, safety, and wellness services; and access to hygiene and sanitation. (emphasis added)In a  recent Catobriefing paper, I  reported there are currently 147 government‐​sanctioned Overdose Prevention Centers (OPCs)—called “safe injection spaces” by Minnesota lawmakers—saving lives in 91 locations in 16 countries. Switzerland, home of the first sanctioned OPC in Bern in 1986, has 14 of them. Germany has 25. Canada has 38.The first two government ‐​sanctioned OPCs in the United States began operating on November 30, 2021, after the City of New York authorizedOnPointNYC, a  non‐​profit harm reduction organization, to operate them in East Harlem and Washington Heights in Manhattan. At a Cato online policy forum in March, Kailin See, the development and implementation lead for those OPCs,told us that during the first year of operation, the 2  OPCs reversed 750 overdoses—those are 750 people who would oth...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - Category: American Health Authors: Source Type: blogs