Providence officials approve overdose prevention center
More than two years ago, Rhode Island became the first state in the country to allow overdose prevention centers, facilities where people could use illegal drugs under professional supervision. On Thursday, the Providence City Council approved the creation of what will be the state's first so-called safe injection site.
Minnesota is the only other state to approve these sites, also known as supervised injection centers and harm reduction centers, but no facility has opened yet. Although several states and cities across the country have taken steps to approve these centers, the concept has faced resistance even in more liberal-leaning states, where officials have grappled with the legal and moral implications. The only two locations in the country that are openly operating are in New York City, where Bill de Blasio, who was then mayor, announced the opening of the first center in 2021.
The centers employ medical and social workers who guard against overdoses by providing oxygen and naloxone, the overdose-reversing drug, as well as clean needles, hygiene products and tests for viruses.
Advocates say these centers prevent deaths and connect people to resources. Brandon Marshall, professor and chairman of the Department of Epidemiology at Brown University School of Public Health, said studies from other countries “show that overdose prevention centers save lives, increase access to treatment and reduce public drug use and crime in push back the world. communities in which they are located.”
Opponents of the centers, including law enforcement groups, say the sites encourage a culture of permissiveness around illegal drugs, fail to require users to seek treatment and bring drug use into neighborhoods already struggling with high overdose rates.
Keith Humphreys, a professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Stanford University, said that while supervised drug consumption sites “reduce risk while people are using drugs there,” they reach only a few people and “do not change the severity or character of a drug use event.” the drug problem in the neighborhood.”
The Providence center, located next to the Rhode Island Hospital campus, will be managed by the nonprofit Project Weber/RENEW and VICTA, a private outpatient substance abuse and mental health program. The majority of funding for the center will come from opioid settlement money. Project Weber said. The center will be subject to regulations by the Rhode Island Department of Health.
In addition to drug-related substances, the center will offer a range of services including food and showering, case management services and housing support.
According to Colleen Daley Ndoye, executive director of Project Weber/RENEW, 434 people in Rhode Island died from drug overdoses in 2022. The center, she said, “is a critical element in the state's comprehensive efforts to combat this crisis.”
New York City's two centers, which opened in 2021, are funded by the city and run by two nonprofits that have merged into one, OnPoint NYC. Since 2021, says OnPoint The centers have served nearly 4,500 people and provided more than 1,300 overdose interventions.
Some Residents And politicians have argued that New York's centers increase crime and public drug use in the neighborhoods where they operate. But a study released in November 2023 found no significant increases in the number of police-recorded crimes or calls for emergency services in those areas.
The centers, which were established under Mr. de Blasio's orders, are technically illegal because the drugs consumed there are controlled substances, and federal law prohibits individuals from owning property where controlled substances are consumed.
New York City's centers have operated without disruption by law enforcement and with the knowledge of local, state and federal authorities. Yet Damian Williams, Manhattan's top federal prosecutor, suggested last summer that his office would crack down. And in November, Governor Kathy Hochul opposed giving money from the opioid litigation settlements to fund overdose prevention sites, despite recommendation from a state board to do so.
The Biden administration has embraced harm reduction methods but has not explicitly approved supervised injection sites.
In 2019, a nonprofit was set to open a center in Philadelphia, but the Trump administration sued and blocked the case. In 2021, a ruled the federal appeals court that the site would violate federal drug laws, halting efforts to establish the center in Philadelphia and other cities like it Seattle. The case remains pending.
Efforts within Colorado And Massachusetts to authorize centers have fallen short. In 2022, the governors of California and… Vermont has vetoed bills for safe injection sites, and last year the Pennsylvania Senate voted to ban them.
The California bill, vetoed by Governor Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, would have created sites in San Francisco, Los Angeles and Oakland, but Mr. Newsom said that while he had “long supported cutting-edge harm reduction strategies ”, he was concerned about the operation of safe injection sites without well-documented plans. He added that he worried about “a world of unintended consequences” that could result from authorizing an unlimited number of sites.
In Providence, where officials hope the center can open later this year, Ms. Daley Ndoye said her city's approval could help convince more officials elsewhere to sign up.
“This sends the message that Rhode Island is a leader in evidence-based public health responses to the overdose crisis,” she said, “and will serve as a catalyst for other cities and states to follow our lead.”
Noah Weiland, Sharon Otterman And Jill Cowan reporting contributed.