(The Seattle Times)
The opioid epidemic has ravaged Philadelphia, and many in the city feel that drastic measures are necessary to stem a scourge of overdoses, including a radical plan to provide a safe space where people can use illegal drugs while under supervision.
Though the plan for what is known as a safe injection site has garnered local support, the city now finds itself in the middle of a major legal fight with the federal government.
The Justice Department sued the nonprofit Safehouse in February, arguing that opening the facility in Philadelphia — the first supervised consumption facility in the United States — would violate federal law. Likening the idea to a crack house, federal officials say allowing the use of illicit drugs with impunity enables and exacerbates the intractable opioid problem; the United States attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania argued that opening Safehouse would violate the Controlled Substances Act, which makes it illegal to open or run a place where illegal drugs are knowingly used.
Safehouse and its backers 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. Read more
Comments