The City of New York announced today that it has authorized two safe consumption sites (sometimes called “overdose prevention sites”), both of which will be operated by a pair of non-profits. One will be in East Harlem and the other will operate in Washington Heights.

This comes about 6 months after Rhode Island’s governor signed legislation authorizing a safe consumption site pilot program that becomes effective in early 2022. The City of Philadelphia has been trying without success to establish Safehouse, after the project was challenged by federal prosecutors. This past October the U.S. Supreme Court refused grant certiorari after the 3^rd Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 2–1 that safe consumption sites violate federal law.

In March 2019 the Cato Institute held a policy forum evaluating harm reduction strategies for the overdose crisis, and a very interesting panel was held on safe consumption sites that included former Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell, a principal in the Safehouse endeavor.

As I’ve mentioned previously, safe consumption sites have existed since the mid‐​1980s, and now operate in more than 120 locations in 66 major cities throughout Europe, Canada, and Australia. The Government of Canada has authorized 38 safe consumption sites since 2016, after studying the success of its first site, Insite, which was founded in Vancouver, BC in 2003.

An unsanctioned safe consumption site has been operating in this country clandestinely since 2014, and researchers have been tracking and reporting on its success reducing overdoses (without revealing its name or location) in the peer-reviewed medical literature. Others operate underground in cities like Seattle, sometimes using apartments and operating like “speakeasies.”

Unfortunately, federal law, specifically the “Crack House Statute,” makes safe consumption sites illegal in the U.S. But a growing number of jurisdictions, aware that safe consumption sites are saving lives throughout much of the developed world, appear willing to test the resolve of federal prosecutors as overdose deaths continue to mount. Congress should repeal the Crack House Statute and get the federal government out of the way of cities and states trying to prevent overdose deaths.