NEW YORK (AP) — A year after winning a major court battle against the opening of so-called safe injection sites ― safe havens for people to use heroin and other narcotics with protections against fatal overdoses — the Justice Department is signaling it might be open to allowing them. The Justice Department won a lawsuit last year, when a federal appeals court ruled that opening such the facility would violate a 1980s-era drug law, aimed at “crackhouses,” which bans operating a place for taking illegal drugs. About six weeks later, the first officially authorized safe injection sites opened in New York City in November. The two facilities — which the city calls “overdose prevention centers” — provide a monitored place for drug users to partake, with staffers and supplies on hand to reverse overdoses. Such sites exist in Canada, Australia and Europe and have been discussed for years in New York and some other U.S. cities and states.

Source: Huffington Post February 08, 2022 01:26 UTC