He’s got a point! –
July 22, 2020 – Kral and Pete Davidson, at the University of California, San Diego, have studied the illegal site for five years and this week published their findings in The New England Journal of Medicine. There have been more than 10,000 injections at the site, whose location is a fiercely guarded secret, and dozens of overdoses — but zero deaths. The findings mirror the results of studies of legal safe-consumption sites in Europe, Canada and Australia. Efforts to open safe-injection sites in at least a dozen U.S. cities have been blocked by U.S. Justice Department lawsuits (or threats of lawsuits), opposition from city councils and citizens’ groups, or both.
In February, a heroin-injection site in Philadelphia was ready to open its doors when the U.S. District Court ruled against the Justice Department, which had filed a suit that claimed the site would violate the federal Controlled Substances Act. However, a day later, the city of Philadelphia rescinded its approval because of protests, which included a rally and online petition to Philly Mayor James Kenney signed by almost 10,000 people. “We the people of South Philadelphia do not desire or believe in the proposed Safe Injection site,” it read. “We believe that more drugs, (and) drug dealers will infiltrate our community.” (A comment from a signer: “They took the parade out of south Philly and moving the drug addicted in!!!! What a disgrace!!”)
