Outgoing Mayor Bill de Blasio said Tuesday New York City will open supervised injection sites for drug users.
The Democrat claimed that “after decades of failure,” opening Overdose Prevention Centers is the “smarter approach.”
Locations in East Harlem and Washington Heights are among the first to open in the city, based on “health need and depth of program experience,” the Health Department said.
“New York City has led the nation’s battle against COVID-19, and the fight to keep our community safe doesn’t stop there. After exhaustive study, we know the right path forward to protect the most vulnerable people in our city. And we will not hesitate to take it,” de Blasio said.
“Overdose Prevention Centers are a safe and effective way to address the opioid crisis,” he added.
Others, like Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-NY), disagree.
Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-NY), whose district includes Staten Island and parts of southern Brooklyn, called on the Department of Justice to block the sites, noting that under former President Trump the DOJ said such sites would violate the federal Controlled Substances Act.
Malliotakis wrote U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland Tuesday urging him to “take swift action to enforce federal law.”
The congresswoman cited a Jan. 2021 Third Circuit Court of Appeals ruling that determined it was a federal crime for a supervised injection site run by a Philadelphia nonprofit to allow consumption of illegal drug use at its location. [...]
“Crime and fentanyl use are at record highs because of open borders, botched bail reform, and anti-police policies that keep releasing criminal drug dealers back onto our streets. Opening taxpayer-funded heroin shooting galleries is not a proper solution. These centers not only encourage drug use but they will further deteriorate our quality of life,” she said. (New York Post)
In 2018, the Trump DOJ committed to me that it would intervene if de Blasio moved forward with Supervised Injection Centers. I’m asking Biden's DOJ to take the same action. @TheJusticeDept https://t.co/8fh1euh2Qf pic.twitter.com/kbQJyefsek
— Office of Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (@RepMalliotakis) November 30, 2021
The two centers in New York are the first officially authorized injection sites in the nation.