Top administrative officials in Philadelphia are pushing for the city to become the first in the United States to open a safe injection site for drug users, according to a report from NPR.
Here are five things to know.
1. The safe injection sites would provide drug users access to clean needles and be staffed by medical professionals who could administer naloxone in the event of an overdose, according to WHYY. Philadelphia's District Attorney Larry Krasner promised he would not prosecute drug users who inject at the site.
2. Momentum behind the controversial idea has grown amid the country's worsening opioid epidemic. Philadelphia recorded 900 opioid-overdose deaths in 2016 and an estimated 1,200 deaths in 2017, which is quadruple the number of deaths attributable to homicides in the city last year.
3. Critics of safe injection sites argue the practice normalizes — or even promotes — drug use, while advocates believe such programs can be a stepping stone to treatment.
"Supervised injection sites are a form of harm reduction," Mr. Krasner told WHYY. "They've been proven to be very important. The only way to get people to turn their lives around is to keep them alive long enough so they can do that, and we're going to do that."
4. The city's Democratic Mayor Jim Kenney said he would soon make an announcement on the launch of a safe injection site, but hasn't yet released any details on the subject, according to
5. While there are about 90 official safe injection sites around the globe, none are located in the U.S. Other domestic cities considering the launch of a city-sponsored safe injection site include Denver, San Francisco and Seattle, according to NPR.
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