Questions surround Philly plan
PHILADELPHIA’S SAFE-INJECTION SITE PLANS CREATE CONTROVERSY
Philadelphia wants to establish safe havens where people can inject drugs, an effort to combat skyrocketing opioid overdoses in the city.
They would be places where people could shoot up under the supervision of medical professionals who could administer an overdose antidote if necessary.
But there are more questions than answers on how it would work and what it would look like, and if it could even legally get up and running.
“We know from other centres that they save lives,” Public Health Commissioner Dr. Thomas Farley said in announcing the plans last week. “But it is complicated from a community perspective and it is complicated from a legal perspective.”
A look at some questions and answers:
WHY IS THIS BEING CONSIDERED?
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. This uptick follows the general surge in drug overdoses in the U.S. Nationally, deaths from drug overdoses skyrocketed 21 per cent in 2016. The government figures released put 2016’s drug deaths at over 63,000. Two-thirds of the drug deaths — about 42,000 — involved opioids, a category that includes heroin, methadone, prescription pain pills like OxyContin, and fentanyl.
___
HOW DID PHILADELPHIA END UP IN THIS POSITION?
People travel from across the country for Philadelphia’s reputedly pure heroin. The centre of the city’s opioid crisis is the Kensington neighbourhood — the poorest neighbourhood in America’s poorest big city. Empty factories there have created a prime locale for open-air drug markets and public transit and proximity to Interstate 95 allow buyers from outside the neighbourhood easy access, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer.
___
WHAT’S THE NEXT STEP?
City officials will speak to organizations possibly interested in operating or funding such a facility and will engage with community members to hear their perspectives, said Ajeenah Amir, a spokeswoman for Democratic Mayor Jim Kenney.
Members of the city’s opioid task force visited Seattle and Vancouver last year. Amir said the city will take lessons from Vancouver, “but build a model that is most appropriate for Philadelphia. In particular, we intend to have a greater emphasis on engaging drug users and trying to help them enter drug treatment.”
___
DO OTHER COMMUNITIES HAVE SAFE INJECTION SITES?
No U.S. city has established such a site, though Seattle has set aside $1.3 million to create a safe injection site there. And a safe haven where people inject themselves with heroin and other drugs has been quietly operating in the United States for the past three years.
Injection sites are operating in Canada, Australia and around Europe.
At Sydney’s Medically Supervised Injecting Centre, more than 5,900 people have overdosed since it opened in 2001. No one has died.
Insite opened in 2003 in the middle of Vancouver’s notoriously squalid Downtown Eastside. More than 3.6 million people have injected drugs under supervision by nurses at Insite since it opened. More than 6,000 have overdosed there but none have died.
One clinic in Amsterdam distributes free heroin to long-term addicts as part of a government program created for hardened addicts who might otherwise commit a crime to pay for their fix.
___
IS IT LEGAL?
The Department of Justice has declined to comment on Philadelphia’s plans.
Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro said changes in state and federal law would have to be made in order for them to operate legally.
House Speaker Mike Turzai, who is running for the Republican nomination to challenge Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf, called Philadelphia’s safe injection plan misguided and a violation of federal law.
Wolf also expressed reservations, saying it presents serious public health and legal concerns. However, he didn’t say he would stand in the city’s way.