Department Of Justice Asks Federal Court For Another Delay In A Safe Drug Consumption Site Lawsuit

The Department of Justice (DOJ) is requesting more time from federal court in relation to a lawsuit on the legality of safe drug consumption sites, reported Marijuana Moment. The non-profit Safehouse filed a complaint asking the court to protect its proposed consumption center against the “crackhouse statute,” which condemns any location with the “purpose of manufacturing, distributing, or using any controlled substance.” The complaint came after a three-judge panel ruled that Safehouse would be in violation of federal law.

Safehouse has been in continuous communication with the DOJ to open a space where people can inject illegal opioids under medical supervision. There were several delays in the case so far because the contact between the two parties seems not to have been productive.

Now, the non-profit is nonconsenting to the last delay request from DOJ and plans to file a motion against it on Tuesday. 

The DOJ stated in a motion on Monday that it “believes an additional two months are necessary to permit careful consideration of the government’s harm reduction and public safety goals.”

“The discussions to date, which have involved coordination among multiple constituencies addressing a novel and complex subject matter, have been and continue to be productive,” it said, adding that DOJ had a meeting with Safehouse lawyers in November and “provided an update” to the court.

On Monday, however, Safehouse emailed its backers saying, “We believed we were making progress when DOJ announced in February 2021 that it was ‘evaluating’ its policy toward supervised consumption services and talking to state and local regulators about ‘appropriate guardrails’ that could enable Safehouse and similar public health initiatives nationwide to offer such services without fear of federal criminal and civil enforcement.”

“Safehouse did not consent to today’s DOJ request for more time and will be filing a motion in opposition tomorrow morning,” the non-profit wrote. “We are long overdue for a timeline as to when DOJ evaluations will be complete so that a life-saving initiative can begin.”

The organization highlighted the importance of this site and the urgency of having a final resolution by acknowledging that every day in Philadelphia three to four people die of an overdose. “Last year’s 1,276 fatal overdoses represented a record high in the city, and those we lost were among more than 100,000 people nationwide who died of overdoses.”

Safe Drug Consumption Sites 

In the meantime, National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) Director Nora Volkow, recently said that safe consumption sites have proven useful in saving patients from overdosing.

“Yes, it’s preventing people from dying,” she said at a recent STAT Summit. “We need to look at it as a solution in context.”

And while the question of allowing safe drug consumption sites in The City of Brotherly Love is being delayed, about a year ago New York City became the first in the nation to open two overdose prevention centers (OPC). 

These two centers managed to save 125 lives in just two months, reveals a recent study published by the American Medical Association (AMA). The study also reported about 2062 overdose facilities in NYC just in 2020, claiming fentanyl and its analogs accounted for 77% of those deaths.

Based on this report, safe consumption sites are serving their purpose – saving lives. The data indicate that OPC helped decrease overdose risk and the prevalence of public drug use.