Blas’ tricky ‘track’tic
End run for needle sites
Mayor de Blasio did an end run around state laws to open the Big Apple’s two supervised shooting galleries, using the facilities’ existing needle-exchange licenses to allow supervised injection and the use of other illicit drugs at the sites, The Post has learned.
The maneuvering came three years after Hizzoner’s administration wrote state officials asking for licenses under state law for safe injection, arguing that the licenses for needle exchanges were not sufficient.
“There is no existing state legislation or approval mechanism for these facilities, and to our knowledge, the city of New York did not promulgate regulations or legislation pertaining to these facilities,” said state Health Department spokeswoman Jill Montag.
The city Health Department confirmed the state-law work-around after days of questions from The Post, with a spokesperson saying, “These are existing facilities that are operated by organizations regulated by New York state to provide syringe services.”
The questions arose as City Hall had refused to detail how it gained approval for the two sites — one in East Harlem and the other in Washington Heights — since it announced their openings on Tuesday.
City officials continued to refuse to detail which agency is tasked with regulating the supervised druginjection sites — which an operator said this week allow for the smoking of crack cocaine — or to explain who is responsible for inspecting the facilities to ensure that they are safe and sanitary.
“The city maintains regular communication with the providers and offers technical assistance. The providers have decades of experience providing lifesaving services to their clients. Staff are medically trained, and sites have very diligent protocol in place,” the city Health Department said in a statement, declining to answer the question.
It’s a dramatic about-face from City Hall’s 2018 position.
Then-Deputy Mayor Hermine Palacio sent a letter to then-state Health Commissioner Howard Zucker requesting that he authorize up to four sites in the city as oneyear pilots.
“As you know, you are authorized to license research studies that may include the possession of controlled substances, as well as studies to deal with controlled substances,” Palacio wrote, before acknowledging the needle licenses wouldn’t go far enough.
“Precedent for the exercise of your authority to permit these research pilots can be found in the leadership shown by your predecessor in 1992, when he authorized the operation of needle-exchange programs in response to the HIV and hepatitis C epidemics,” she added.
Former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a fellow Democrat, never allowed the program to move forward despite offering assurances in 2018 that he would support a limited version.
De Blasio’s decision to use the existing needle-exchange licenses also runs counter to the findings of a 2017 study — ordered by the City Council and completed by his administration — that evaluated possible avenues for legalizing such sites.
The study determined that the best path forward would be for lawmakers in Albany to pass a law allowing the sites to open, or receiving the blessing of the state Health Department.
The 148-page review also found that the city could potentially legalize the operation by declaring a public health emergency, a move it called legally tenuous.
The mayor did not exercise that option in approving these sites.
“Coordination with the New York State Department of Health would be essential so as not to interfere with state health waivers authorizing [needle-exchange programs],” the report warned.
And, it added, “As with local legislative efforts, local administrative actions may draw challenges under state law, depending on state prosecutors’ enforcement decisions.”
The city recorded an astounding 2,000 overdose deaths in 2020 — a record high, fueled by rampant contamination of the city’s illicit drug supply by fentanyl, an ultra-lethal synthetic opioid.
De Blasio, meanwhile, is preparing to seek the Democratic Party’s 2022 gubernatorial nomination, challenging Gov. Hochul. He touted the clinics in a video that was recorded outside City Hall Park and posted on his political operation’s Twitter account on Wednesday.
City Hall did not immediately respond to questions or a request for comment.