Philadelphia was inching closer to becoming the first city in the United States to open a safe-injection site to address the city’s opioid crisis. But the project has hit a roadblock – the U.S. Department of Justice.
Pennsylvania’s top federal prosecutor last week announced he was suing the nonprofit facility called Safehouse – with timing that coincided with an executive director being named and the start of fundraising.
The lawsuit, initiated by U.S. Attorney William M. McSwain, would ask a federal judge to decide if a safe-injection site would violate The Federal Analogue Act, a section of the U.S. Controlled Substances Act passed in 1986, and therefore be illegal. Enacted during the height of the crack epidemic, the federal statute prohibits the opening of a facility for the purpose of making, distributing or using controlled substances.
“These deadly drug-injection sites undoubtedly do violate the law,” McSwain said during a news conference in Center City last Wednesday. “It is the [Justice] Department’s job to promote and enforce the rule of law, not to look the other way. Normalizing the use of deadly drugs like heroin and fentanyl is not the answer to solving the opioid epidemic.
“If Safehouse wants to operate an injection site, it should work through the democratic process to try to change the law,” he added.
Those behind the effort to open Safehouse said McSwain’s interpretation of the legislation is skewed.