The last decade has brought an explosion of deaths by drug overdose, particularly by heroin and opioids like fentanyl. Other countries around the world have tried an interesting and controversial option for handling this tragic trend: clean injection sites. Countries like Canada, Portugal, Australia, France, and Norway have already opened clean injection sites and New York City opened it's first on November 30, 2021.
Also called safe injection sites, safe consumption spaces, or supervised consumption services, these are sterile places to take opioid medications and other addictive drugs under professional supervision. They don’t necessarily reduce the number of people taking opioids or heroin, but they reduce the dangers of doing so for people who are already addicted. In other words, safe injection sites are a harm-reduction strategy. It's about addiction treatment, not drug prohibition.
References
Drug Policy Alliance. (n.d.). Overdose prevention centers.
Kral, A, et al. (2017). Addressing the nation’s opioid epidemic: lessons from an unsanctioned supervised injection site in the U.S. American Journal of Preventive Medicine;53(6:919-22).
Mays, J, et al. (2021). Nation’s first supervised drug-injection sites open in New York. The New York Times.
National Institute on Drug Abuse (2022). Overdose death rates.
World Health Organization (2013). Opioid overdose: preventing and reducing opioid overdose mortality.
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