The first supervised-injection site in the U.S. will open next week in Philadelphia, the site’s operators said Tuesday after a federal judge’s issued a final ruling that the proposed facility would not violate federal law, the Philadelphia Inquirer reports. The organizers behind Safehouse, the nonprofit formed to open the site, were expected to open a second site elsewhere in the city shortly after the opeing in South Philadelphia. The city has also issued a public-safety plan for the area outside a site, and Safehouse has been training volunteer escorts, like those that abortion providers have used for years to protect women.
The opening is the culmination of a two-year battle to open a place where people in addiction can use drugs under medical supervision, be revived if they overdose, and access treatment. The legal battle over the site is not over. U.S. Attorney William McSwain will appeal U.S. District Judge Gerald McHugh’s ruling. Some neighborhood groups in South Philadelphia are already raising alarm. McSwain, who says a supervised injection site would promote drug use and lead to a rise in crime in the surrounding area, has threatened to use “all enforcement tools” at his disposal, including arrests, drug seizures, and criminal forfeitures, to stop any site that opens before the appeals process is complete. “We believe that Safehouse’s proposed activity threatens to institutionalize the scourge of illegal drug use — and all the problems that come with it — in Philadelphia neighborhoods,” he said. Safehouse organizers said time is of the essence, and that the nonprofit is designed to save lives amid an unprecedented overdose crisis that has killed nearly 3,500 Philadelphians in the last three years.