I write to express my vehement opposition to recent proposals to establish so called “safe injection sites” within the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
People would bring illegal drugs obtained on the street and inject themselves without risk of criminal prosecution.
Such proposals conflict with federal law.
These sites, which will normalize intravenous use of heroin and fentanyl, would not be off limits to federal law enforcement efforts, despite what the Commonwealth’s legislature might try to enact.
Employees and users of such a site would be exposed to federal criminal charges regardless of any state law or study.
Specific federal criminal statutes prohibiting use of illicit narcotics and maintaining premises for illegal narcotics use are not to be trifled with. It is a crime, not only to use illicit narcotics, but to manage and maintain sites on which such drugs are used and distributed.
There is also little credible empirical evidence that safe injection sites lead drug addicts into treatment.
We are already in a horrendous opioid epidemic. We do not need state sponsored shooting up galleries.
Barnstable, MA
