Proving ground

At long last, New York City has become the first domino in what will hopefully be a nationwide turn towards supervised injection facilities, or SIFs, to curb soaring overdose deaths, funnel people towards the tools for recovery, and bring drug use and paraphernalia including needles into clean and controlled environments.

With the formal announcement of city backing for two nonprofit-run SIFs in Upper Manhattan, in former needle exchange sites, the de Blasio administration has made good on its promise to bring this proven harm-reduction system, supported by everyone from progressive organizations to the NYPD, to a city that badly needs new approaches to this acute health crisis.

While the concept has been implemented successfully internationally like in Vancouver, it remains a bit of an open question for New Yorkers, making the rollout all the more crucial. It’s not enough to simply open the sites. New nonprofit operator OnPoint NYC — created from the melding of the New York Harm Reduction Educators and the Washington Heights

Corner Project — and city officials must prove to the surrounding community that there will not be a tradeoff between public safety and assistance to opioid users.

That means ensuring not only that patients are cared for properly, but that the sites themselves do not become a magnet for the illegal drug trade and the many forms of crime that are commonly connected with it. It’s a fine needle to thread, making clear that the sites are to provide assistance and not to invite dealing and open-air drug use, while also avoiding a heavy-handed tack that will drive away the people the centers are supposed to help. We’re confident it can be done, not only for the benefit of our city but for the many municipalities and states around the country that have been waiting for someone to take the first plunge.

It’s also crucial now that the federal government not interfere; while facilitating space for drug use remains technically illegal, a crackdown here would hamstring a pivotal avenue to reduce deaths.