First California’s governor disappoints harm reduction advocates by vetoing SB. 57, which would have added the country’s most populous state to the growing movement to legalize Overdose Prevention Centers (also known as “safe consumption sites”). Next we learn that Santa Monica’s City Council wants to stop syringe services programs (also known as “needle exchange programs”) from meeting people who inject drugs where they live.
At today’s Santa Monica City Council meeting, the Council will be asked to approve a letter, authored by Councilmembers Lana Negrete and Phil Brock, addressed to the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors that states the following:
It has come to our attention that the Venice Family Clinic under the purview of the Los Angeles Department of Public Health, Substance Abuse and Prevention and Control Division is providing clean needles to individuals in our parks and open spaces through the Harm Reduction Syringe Services Program…We understand our limited regulatory authority, however, rather than implement this program in our parks and open spaces, we seek your assistance in immediately moving this program to a service rich environment (preferably indoors) where individuals in need of substance abuse, mental health, and other services can coordinate and work directly with service providers. (emphasis added)
Mobile syringe services programs (SSPs) are an important variant of this proven—and federally encouraged—harm reduction tool. Sometimes people are unaware that fixed SSPs exist or how to find them. Many homeless people are uninformed or lack access to such centers. Therefore, many SSP programs send out mobile units to find and connect to IV and other drug users on their turf, handing out clean equipment, the overdose antidote naloxone, and offering HIV and hepatitis tests and referral for treatment. Harm reduction organizations are serious about reducing overdose deaths and the spread of deadly diseases, and are not content with waiting for drug users to find them.
According to a report from the Santa Monica Police Department, many community members and small business owners are upset that people who use drugs occupy homeless encampments in plain sight, sleep in doorways, and are a “sanitation risks.” In addition, the report states small business owners and tenants in the community are concerned about “preserving aesthetics.”
Ironically, Governor Newsom had just vetoed a bill that would allow for a proven way to bring people who use drugs indoors and out of the doorways and walkways of community residents: overdose prevention centers. The world’s first such officially sanctioned center, then called a “drug consumption room,” was opened in Bern, Switzerland in 1986. Called Contact Netz, the government officially sanctioned the center because residents and business owners objected to the sanitation risks and unsightliness of public drug use. The center still serves people today, as one of 147 overdose prevention centers saving lives and helping people get treatment in 91 cities and 16 developed countries in Europe, North America, and Australia. But these centers are illegal in the United States. Last November, New York City authorized two overdose prevention centers, defying federal law, and they reportedly averted 230 overdose deaths by April 2022.
Alas, California, which prides itself as a center of innovation, missed an opportunity to lead the country with a harm reduction innovation that might have helped address the understandable and legitimate grievances of many Santa Monica residents. The City Council should really direct a letter of complaint to Governor Newsom. Better yet, Santa Monica should follow New York City’s example and authorize one or more overdose prevention centers within its city limits.
