Safe Injection Sites? Good or Bad?

The United States Justice Department is in the realm of maybe allowing 'safe havens for people to use heroin and other narcotics with protections against fatal overdoses.' 

The Trump administration was fully against these types of facilities. They fought against a plan that Pennsylvania legislators had as they wanted to open a site in Philadelphia. When the Supreme Court did not take the case in October of last year, New York took this as an opportunity to open their own. 

The city calls these two facilities in New York "overdose prevention centers." They are a well-monitored place where drug users can 'safely' intake these drugs and they have staff and the supplies they need to reverse an overdoes if it occurs. 

People who are for these centers say this will decrease the death rate as more that 100,000 Americans died from May 2020 to April 2021 from drug overdoes. On the other side, people are saying that this would encourage more illegal drug use and rundown neighborhoods. 

With a new administration, this could possibly help pass the Justice Department allowing these centers.

References:

Balsamo, M & Peltz, J. 2021. Justice Dept. signals it may allow safe injection site. AP News. 

    
https://apnews.com/article/business-health-new-york-c4e6d999583d7b7abce2189fba095011