Medical News
America’s first supervised narcotics injection
site gets green light from judge
But the US federal government wants to thwart plans for the Philadelphia facility
A
case to allow America’s first safe house for drug
users is making its way through the Philadelphia
legal system amid strong opposition from
residents and the US federal government.
In late February, a district court judge ruled that
facilities that allowed the supervised injection of illegal
drugs did not violate federal law, paving the way
for both the opening of a Philadelphia “safe” heroin
injection site and a judicial appeal.
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MAY 2020
Following the ruling, attention moved to where
to locate the facility. After initially considering a
depressed neighbourhood, the city government
caused an outcry when it announced that an upwardly
mobile district in South Philadelphia had been picked
by the non-profit that had been fighting a campaign to
open up the facility.
Residents of the area, which houses a day care
centre, the South Philadelphia High School, and
hundreds of middle-class apartments and houses,
spoke out at a chaotic press conference to announce
the location in March.
“I care about what my children have to see at 6 and
10 years old… that I have to explain hardened drug
addiction,” screamed one attendee, according to the
minutes of the meeting.
Under the plans by Safehouse, the local non-
profit hoping to usher in the facility, drug addicts
will be monitored as they inject at the centre, with
teams standing ready to revive them in the event of
an overdose. The long-term goal of the project is to
eventually steer addicts into some type of treatment
plan.
Safehouse boasts a glittering line-up of supporters,
including a former Pennsylvania governor and the
executive director of a legal charity made famous in
the Tom Hanks movie Philadelphia.
Although the judge in the case, a liberal appointed
by President Obama, ruled in favour of the safe house,
the decision has since been appealed by the federal
government which is determined to shut down the
concept of safe houses for drug users and deem them
illegal throughout America.
“We’re gratified that the judge found that federal
law doesn’t prohibit Safehouse from operating a
facility for the purpose of saving lives and preventing
overdose deaths. This is a major step forward and lays
the legal groundwork to enable us to proceed with this
critical public health intervention,” the group said in a
statement.
“Safehouse’s overdose prevention services are
designed to save lives, which is consistent with the
intent of federal drug laws,” it said.
The world’s first government-authorised
supervised safe house opened more than 30 years
ago in Switzerland. Today, more than 120 supervised
consumption sites are operating in Europe, Australia,
and Canada, the group believes. Currently, no such
programme exists in the United States.
GlobalHealthAndTravel.com