Supervised Drug Injection Site To Open In Park Slope, Mayor Says

PARK SLOPE, NY — The city plans to open a supervised injection facility for heroin users in Park Slope as part of Mayor Bill de Blasio's push to drive down the number of overdoses.

De Blasio said on WNYC Friday that the facility will open on Fourth Avenue, near the Barclays Center, at a place with an existing "needle exchange" program as a year-long pilot program. It would be one of four around the city.

Staff would be on hand to stop overdoses using medication like naloxone, and social workers would help guide users into addiction treatment programs, according to The New York Times.

In a long-awaited report published Thursday, the Department of Health said the sites could stop up to 130 overdose deaths and save up to $7 million in public health costs annually.

De Blasio's support for injection sites, which have been established in other countries but are not yet open in the United States, comes after an aggressive push from advocates who have waited months for the mayor to take a position on the issue.

"After a rigorous review of similar efforts across the world, and after careful consideration of public health and safety expert views, we believe overdose prevention centers will save lives and get more New Yorkers into the treatment they need to beat this deadly addiction," de Blasio said in a tweet Thursday.

The city plans to open the other sites, dubbed "overdose prevention centers," in Washington Heights and Midtown West in Manhattan, and Longwood in the Bronx as one-year pilot program, de Blasio said.

They'll be hosted by facilities with existing "needle exchange" programs that offer clean syringes to people who inject drugs, he said. Nonprofit groups, not the city, would reportedly operate and fund them.

The sites would reportedly start running after a six- to 12-month outreach process in the communities that would host them. The city will only open them if they're approved by the state Department of Health, each borough's district attorney and the local City Council representative, de Blasio said.

The plan does not include a site on Staten Island, which has seen the highest overdose rate in the city.

The mayor's office did not freely distribute details of the plan in a press release despite the fact that it ends one stage of a heated debate and could put New York City on the vanguard of U.S. drug treatment policy.

Supporters see injection sites as important tools in the fight against the opioid overdose epidemic. The city saw 1,441 overdose deaths last year, a record high that marks a 166-percent increase from 2010, according to the city Department of Health report. Opioids were involved in more than 80 percent of those deaths.

Advocates argue the sites would give addicts a safe place to inject drugs and access medical treatment, offering an alternative to the public bathrooms, parks and stairwells that many turn to now.

Seattle, San Francisco and Philadelphia have taken steps toward opening supervised injection facilities, though none are operational yet. But sites in Canada and Europe have proven effective at preventing fatal overdoses, de Blasio said.

The plan would have to clear big legal hurdles. Chief among them is a federal law known as the "crack house statute" that bans organizations from openly facilitating illegal drug use, according to the Department of Health report, which was commissioned in 2016.

It's unclear how federal authorities might react to the existence of the injection sites, but their staff and clients could face arrest and prosecution, the report says. Legislation or administrative authorization from state officials could offer a degree of legal safety, according to the report.

Locally, de Blasio pledged to work with the NYPD to ensure the centers are kept "safe" and "orderly." "We will not tolerate anything less," he said.

Advocates have recently blasted de Blasio, a Democrat, for taking so long to support injection sites. Eleven people, including City Councilman Stephen Levin, were arrested at a Wednesday protest about the issue.

But the city's plan won praise from advocates, the Manhattan and Brooklyn district attorneys and City Council Speaker Corey Johnson. Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clark reportedly said she's open to the idea.

"The reality is that people use drugs and forcing individuals to inject in public bathrooms and parks is unsafe and inhumane," Alyssa Aguilera, the co-executive director of VOCAL-NY, said in a statement. "We are pleased that New York City is finally moving forward on this lifesaving effort."

Story first reported by Noah Manskar/Patch

(Lead image: A man injects heroin in Philadelphia in January 2018. Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)