New York City Joins Philadelphia ’s and Rhode Island’s Effort to Create Safe Consumption Sites in Defiance of Federal Law

Jeffrey A. SingerThe City of New Yorkannounced today that it has authorized two safe consumption sites (sometimes called “overdose prevention sites”), both of which will be operated by a pair of non ‐​profits. One will be in East Harlem and the other will operate in Washington Heights.This comes about 6 months after Rhode Island ’s governor signedlegislation authorizing a safe consumption site pilot program that becomes effective in early 2022. The City of Philadelphia has been trying without success to establishSafehouse, after the project was challenged by federal prosecutors. This past October the U.S. Supreme Court refused grant certiorari after the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 2 –1 that safe consumption sites violate federal law.In March 2019 the Cato Institute held a policy forum evaluating harm reduction strategies for the overdose crisis, and a very interesting panel was held on safe consumption sites that included former Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell, a principal in the Safehouse endeavor.As I ’ve mentioned previously, safe consumption siteshave existed since the mid ‐​1980s, and now operate in more than120 locationsin 66 major cities throughout Europe, Canada, and Australia. The Government of Canada hasauthorized 38 safe consumption sites since 2016, after studying the success of its first site,Insite, which was founded in Vancouver, BC in 2003.An unsanctioned safe consumption site has been operating in this c...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - Category: American Health Authors: Source Type: blogs