Philadelphia Medicine Fall/Winter 2019 - 16

p h i l a m e d s o c .org

feature

Backers of a
Philadelphia Safe
Injection Site
Win First
Court Test:
But the Federal
Effort to Block Such
a Site Continues
By: Alan Miceli, Editor

he U.S. Attorney for the Philadelphia area has promised
to use all legal avenues he has available to shut down any
safe injection site that opens in the city before the Justice
Department has exhausted its appeals.

their drug addiction. "We hope that the first time somebody comes
in they'll see that we are not judgmental. Maybe they'll take us up on
the offer if not the first time, maybe the second. Or the 20th time or
25th time. Each time they return we'll be offering the same support."

In a letter to Ilana H. Eisenstein, attorney for Safehouse, the nonprofit seeking to open a safe injection site, U.S. Attorney William
McSwain wrote that he will use drug seizures, arrests, and other
methods to ensure the organization does not open such a facility.
McSwain wrote that if Safehouse opens before the court fight ends,
"you will force my hand, and I will have no choice but to take the
steps necessary to maintain the status quo."

Goldfein added that there's obviously no quality control when it
comes to illegal drugs on the street. A safe injection site would help
deal with that serious, sometimes life-threatening problem. And a
safe injection site would ensure that if there is an overdose, people
are right there ready to help, as opposed to someone injecting drugs
in a back alley somewhere. People are shooting up whether there is
a safehouse or not. Goldfein said a safe injection site offers the hope
that those people will be at least able to use drugs in relative safety.

The letter came in the wake of the October 2 decision by U.S.
District Judge Gerald McHugh that a 33-year-old federal law aimed
at closing crack houses, was not created to apply to a safe injection
site. Supporters of Safehouse cheered the decision. Ronda Goldfein,
vice president and secretary of Safehouse and director of the AIDS
Law Project of Pennsylvania, told Philadelphia Medicine, McHugh's
ruling "is an important step forward. The decision supports our belief
that federal law would not prohibit us from saving lives."
Goldfein added that the judge "saw that it was clear that our
goal is to reduce drug use, not facilitate it."
She said a safe injection site would help fight the deadly epidemic
of drug overdoses in the city. Last year, 1,116 people died from drug
overdoses in Philadelphia. Goldfein says a safe injection site would
be supervised by a medically trained person, a case manager, and
a peer specialist. In the case of overdoses, staff would be ready to
revive the victims with naloxone.
Goldfein said the facility would be a sterile area that would allow
persons to inject drugs under supervision. While such persons are at
the facility, staff members would offer services to help them break
16 Philadelphia Medicine : Fall/Winter 2019

Safehouse expects such a facility to attract hundreds of people
each day. There are about 120 such sites in Canada, Australia and
Europe. Goldfein says the evidence from those sites is fairly conclusive. "No fatalities at the sites, decreased fatalities in the vicinity
of the site, reduced public consumption in the area, and reduced
drug-related litter." She said there are estimates that a safe injection
site in Philadelphia would save at least 75 lives a year. She believes
that's a low estimate.
The local chapter of the Fraternal Order of Police is against a
safe injection site. The FOP, along with six civic associations in city
neighborhoods in and around the Kensington area where the safe
injection site is being considered, filed Friend of the Court briefings
in support of the U.S. Attorney's case.
Shannon Farrell, head of the Harrowgate Civic Association in
the Kensington area, said the Safehouse people have good intentions,
but what they want to do will only make the drug problem in her
neighborhood worse. She recently wrote that "Safehouse claims
they can make drug use safe, but there's no way they can make our

Philadelphia Medicine Fall/Winter 2019

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Philadelphia Medicine Fall/Winter 2019