Federal authorities announced Wednesday that they are suing a nonprofit organization that wants to build a facility in Philadelphia where drug users could inject heroin and illicit fentanyl under medical supervision to be protected from overdosing.
The lawsuit, filed Tuesday against the nonprofit Safehouse and its executive director Jen Bowles, is the first of its kind. The lawsuit could set a precedent on whether other cities can set up similar facilities, known as supervised injection sites. Seattle, Denver, Pittsburgh, San Francisco, and New York have considered them.
The filing by U.S. Attorney William McSwain, an appointee of President Trump, asked a judge in a civil lawsuit to declare the facility illegal under federal law. U.S. Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein had threatened legal action against the sites in August 2018.
Philadelphia’s mayor, Democrat Jim Kenney, said more than a year ago that he did not plan to try to stand in the way of Safehouse’s work with the city’s health department as it set up the injection sites. Safehouse and local officials haven’t yet determined what part of the city the site will be in, but are considering Kensington, which has disproportionately high rates of overdose. They have said they will not use government funding to pay for it.
The case will be heard by U.S. District Judge Gerald McHugh, an appointee of former President Barack Obama.
Supporters of supervised injection sites say that they are one way to prevent the toll that the opioid epidemic takes on communities. They offer not only drugs, known as naloxone, to reverse overdoses, but also clean needles to prevent the spread of infections such as HIV and hepatitis C and information for people to receive addiction treatment. The facility does not provide illicit drugs to people but allows them to bring in their own.
Facilities have been operating in certain cities in Europe and in Canada.
Critics worry about sanctioning drug use and letting people who use drugs believe they are safe. The lawsuit specifically states that it violates a portion of the Controlled Substances Act in the 1980s, dubbed the “crack house statute.” The law makes it illegal to have a place that is used to make, store, or distribute illegal drugs.
Philadelphia has the highest overdose rate of any major city. Its illicit opioids are particularly potent and inexpensive, costing only $5 a hit. At least 1,217 died from opioid overdoses in Philadelphia in 2017.
