New York City Becomes First to Provide Safe Havens for Drug Use 

Hoping to curb the epidemic of deadly overdoses, New York City has authorized the first official and privately run “overdose prevention centers” in the country to provide a monitored place for drug users to partake in heroin and other narcotics, reports the Associated Press. The sites don’t sell drugs — users bring their own — but have monitors who watch for signs of overdose and can administer an antidote if needed. Sterile syringes and other accoutrements are usually on hand and the facilities also would offer referrals to drug treatment and other services.

While proponents see the facilities as pragmatic, life-saving tools for stopping some of the record-breaking overdose rates currently plaguing the United States, opponents see the sites as moral failures that essentially sanction people harming themselves and create hubs of drug use and federal law also bans operating a place for taking illegal drugs. Researchers have estimated that supervised injection sites in New York City could prevent 130 deaths and save $7 million in health care expenses per year. Studies have also found that such facilities reduce HIV infections and 911 calls for overdoses.