Desperate Philadelphia Aims to Be First City with Safe Injection Sites to Combat Opioid Crisis

The City of Philadelphia is desperate for solutions to the opioid crisis. Now, they're looking to implement a controversial policy by opening safe-injection sites where people can inject illegal drugs under medical supervision.

 

City officials announced Tuesday they would begin seeking outside operators to establish one or more safe injection sites. This would make them the first U.S. city to allow supervised drug injection sites.

 

Safe injection sites are locations where users can do drugs under the supervision of a doctor who can administer an overdose antidote if necessary.

 

Philadelphia Public Health Commissioner Dr. Thomas Farley says the sites could be "a life-saving strategy and a pathway to treatment."

 

"No one here condones or supports illegal drug use in any way," Farley continued. "We want people saddled with drug addiction to get help."

 

Philadelphia has the highest opioid death rate of any large U.S. city. More than 1,200 people fatally overdosed in Philadelphia in 2017, one-third more than 2016.

 

The Philadelphia Inquirer reported city officials concluded that a single site in the city would save 25 to 75 lives a year and millions of dollars in hospital costs and public funds, and at the same reduce public injection of drugs.

 

Other cities have proposed the idea. No U.S. city has established such a site, though there are some in Canada and Europe.

Seattle announced their plans to open a supervised injection site last year. The proposition received rapid backlash. Residents were unsuccesful in getting a ballot measure passed that would have banned them completely.

 

In November, the Seattle city council announced they would allocate $1.3 million in their budget for 2018 for a site in the city.

 

The city of Philadelphia does not plan on funding or operating the site, but rather providing support to private sector development of the sites.