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1 1 (November 22, 2019)

handle is hein.crs/govbbwz0001 and id is 1 raw text is: Reducing Harm or Enabling Substance Abuse? Supervised Injection Sites Under Federal Drug Law November 22, 2019 To mitigate the effects of the opioid crisis in Philadelphia, in 2018 a nonprofit called Safehouse announced plans to open a supervised injection site where illicit drug users could consume opioids under the supervision of trained staff, receive medical intervention in case of an overdose, and access services including addiction treatment. The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) sued Safehouse to block the proposed facility, arguing that the supervised injection site would violate a provision of the Controlled Substances Act (CSA) known as the crack house statute, which prohibits making facilities available for the purpose of unlawfully . .. using a controlled substance. On October 2, 2019, a district court judge in United States v Sa 'house ruled that the planned facility would not violate the CSA because the provision in question does not apply to supervised injection sites such as Safehouse. The district court's ruling could have significant implications for supervised injection sites in Philadelphia and beyond: although supervised injection sites exist in ten countries worldwide, none currently operate openly in the United States, due in part to concerns about their legality. This Sidebar discusses the Safehouse litigation's importance for Congress by first providing relevant factual and legal background, before identifying select considerations for Congress related to the treatment of supervised injection sites under the CSA. The Opioid Crisis and Safehouse's Plan of Operation The opioid epidemic has caused a public health crisis in the United States, with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reporting that overdoses on prescription and non-prescription opioids claimed a record 47,600 lives in 2017. According to one report, in 2017 over 1,100 people died of overdoses in Philadelphia alone. Safehouse was founded in 2018 to mitigate the effects of the opioid crisis in that city. A key feature of Safehouse's response to the opioid crisis is the organization's plan to operate a supervised injection site. Suipevised injection sites are locations where controlled substance users can consume their own illicit drugs using sterile equipment under the supervision of trained medical staff who Congressional Research Service https://crsreports.congress.gov LSB10364 CRS Legal Sidebar Prepared for Members and C om m ttees oft C ong ress ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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