A view of trash that drug users left under a Philadelphia bridge in 2017. City officials are trying to come up with innovative solutions for the opioid crisis. One possibility — a safe injection site — has drawn federal scrutiny.
Safehouse and its supporters are now arguing in a court filing and in interviews that innovative local action is the only thing that will help solve Philadelphia’s opioid crisis, one of the worst in the country, and that ensuring users don’t fatally overdose is an immediate public need. “There’s no harm that comes from a facility like this, and if we save even on the low side, 25 lives . . . isn’t that worth it?’ Rendell said. “The federal and state and city governments aren’t giving us any money. Where’s the harm?”In court papers filed Wednesday, Safehouse argues that its model, which will provide sterile equipment, counseling, access to medical care and access to an FDA-approved drug to reverse opioid overdoses, is necessary to save lives in the city.
A heroin user rests after injecting the drug at a safe-injection clinic in Vancouver. Such sites are legal in Canada, Australia and Europe. The lawsuit could serve as a test case, as cities nationwide are looking to open supervised injection facilities. City officials in Ithaca, N.Y.; San Francisco; Seattle; and New York have expressed interest in opening the facilities, as has a legislative committee in Massachusetts.
“The moral and religious imperative to save lives, medical ethics and practice, the public health data, and federal law all point to the same conclusion: Safehouse offers a lifesaving service that is not prohibited by” the crack house law, the documents state.Ronda Goldfein, vice president of Safehouse’s board and executive director of the AIDS Law Project of Pennsylvania, said the organization does not wish to flout federal law.
Why not open public rehab centers instead? Addicts need supervised detox centers and rehab therapy, not places to further their addiction. Do you give the alcoholic more alcohol, or the lung cancer patient a pack of cigarettes? It's a disease, treat it as such.
Let's indulge the vice. It worked out well for San Francisco with human waste and dirty needle littered streets. Compassion is getting them off the junk not codependently enabling the addiction.
Terrible idea.
All other forms of addictions are being treated as sickness except for drug addiction, governments do not want to lose any of their boogeymen.
Deffff need something like this there. They’ve been doing this in Canada for years, can’t believe it’s taken so long for other places to try this method. It’s pretty effective.
How about a supervised flame 🔥 throwing? Lol
What a cesspool
I live in this atrocious city and see this move as the worst possible decision by the dumb Democrats in charge.
I am sure neighborhoods close to the facility must be delighted...
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