U.S. attorney in Philadelphia sues over safe injection site
PHILADELPHIA >> The top federal prosecutor in Philadelphia has filed suit to stop a nonprofit from opening a first-in-the-nation supervised drug injection site to address the city’s opioid problem.
The lawsuit pits U.S. Attorney William McSwain’s stance on safe injection sites against those of Philadelphia’s mayor, district attorney and a former Pennsylvania governor. McSwain believes supporters should try to change the laws, not break them.
“Normalizing the use of deadly drugs like heroin and fentanyl is not the answer to solving the epidemic,” McSwain said at a Wednesday news conference, while protesters gathered outside his office on Independence Mall.
They said thousands of people could die of overdoses in Philadelphia in the time it might take to change the law.
Philadelphia has the highest opioid death rate of any large U.S. city, with more than 1,000 deaths per year. In response, Mayor Jim Kenney and others have come to support a nonprofit group’s plan to open a safe injection site.
It’s likely to be located in the Kensington neighborhood, north of downtown, where so-called “drug tourists” flock to buy high-grade heroin and city librarians have learned to use Naloxone to respond to bathroom overdoses.
Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner, who’s visited a safe injection program in Vancouver, said McSwain is relying on the failed drug policies of the past.