Safe sites for drug use OK’d in effort to curb overdoses

NEW YORK » The first officially authorized safe havens for people to use heroin and other narcotics have been cleared to open in New York City, in hopes of curbing overdoses, the mayor and health commissioner said Tuesday.

The “overdose prevention centers,” commonly known as supervised injection sites, have been discussed for years in New York and some other U.S. cities, and already exist in Canada, Australia and Europe.

A few unofficial facilities have operated in the city for some time, allowing users a monitored place to take drugs.

Proponents say the facilities save lives by recognizing the reality of drug use and providing a place where users are watched for signs of overdoses, which claimed a record number of lives in the city and nation last year.

“I’m proud to show cities in this country that after decades of failure, a smarter approach is possible,” Mayor Bill de Blasio, a Democrat, said in a statement.

Opponents, however, see the sites as a moral failure that essentially sanctions people harming themselves. Federal law bans operating a place for narcotics use.