A Welcome Victory For Harm Reduction Advocates

Jeffrey A. SingerOn Wednesday, October 2, US District Judge Gerald McHughruled that the plans of a non-profit, privately-funded, harm reduction organization to establish a Safe Injection Site in Philadelphia do not violate federal law. A group that  includes former Philadelphia Mayor and Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell was warned last year by then-Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein that their plans to establish “Safehouse” would be a violation of federal law and would face a “swift federal response.” In February of this year, US Attorney for the eastern district of Pennsylvania Bill McSwainsought a declaratory judgment in federal court regarding the legality of the enterprise, arguing that Safe Injection Facilities (also called “Overdose Prevention Sites”) violate the federal “Crack House Statute. ”Governor Rendell spoke about Safehouse and the court battle at the Cato Institute ’s conference on harm reduction in March of this year. Also on the panel discussing the matter were Clark Neily, Cato’s Vice President for Criminal Justice, and Darwin Fisher, Program Director of “Insite,” in Vancouver, BC, North America’s oldest Safe Injection Facility. You can view that panel discussionhere. In their argument before the court, the Department of Justice called Safehouse an “in-your-face illegal activity.”While the Justice Department intends to appeal the ruling,  this is still a very encouraging development. Several other cities have been wantin...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - Category: American Health Authors: Source Type: blogs