SCS reduce fatal overdose by giving people who use drugs a safe, supervised facility in which to do so. In addition to providing sterile equipment such as syringes, SCS staff can use readily available naloxone to reverse overdoses. There has never been a single overdose death at any known SCS in the world.

SCS staff can also refer visitors to other services including HIV and hepatitis C testing, substance use treatment and mental health care. SCS do not provide their participants with drugs, contrary to opponents’ claims.

Rhode Island’s hard-fought authorization isn’t permanent, at least not yet—it’s a two-year pilot program, with the condition that any facility must get local approval from its city council before opening. It is still, however, a massive victory in the nation’s broader struggle to legalize SCS. Where is New York on this same issue?

A Failure of State Leadership

New York harm reduction advocates had gained ground in 2017, successfully lobbying in Albany to introduce a bill authorizing SCS anywhere in the state. Lawmakers have revived the bill in every legislative session since then. It is currently sponsored by Senator Gustavo Rivera (D-The Bronx) and Assemblymember Linda Rosenthal (D-Manhattan).

In May 2018, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio made a landmark statement agreeing to support SCS. That same day, the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene released a report estimating that SCS would prevent 130 drug overdose deaths in the city each year. 

The plan was to get the city’s SCS up and running in six to 12 months. They would be housed at four syringe service programs (SSP) located across Manhattan, Brooklyn and The Bronx.

But then, Governor Andrew Cuomo effectively stopped them from moving forward by requiring they pass a “mandatory review” by the health department. Three years later, that review is still pending.

“The governor is the single block to us launching this pilot program.”

It also appears that Cuomo lied outright to advocates. Back in June 2018, they responded to his series of lukewarm commitments by planning a die-in at a Pride event supporting his re-election. One of his aides contacted organizers and persuaded them to call it off, in exchange for which Cuomo reportedly promised to sign onto SCS after the election. Once re-elected, Cuomo never acknowledged the agreement.

“The governor is the single block to us launching this pilot program that we could have had running years ago,” Jeremy Saunders, co-director of VOCAL-NY, told Filter. “We could have saved hundreds, maybe thousands of lives.”

“This is a governor who has opposed interventions regarding homelessness, reducing incarceration or increasing taxes on the wealthy. He opposes every demand that would improve the lives of poor, working-class, most people—until he is forced to do otherwise.”

The two-year pilot program proposed by de Blasio would still face challenges if Cuomo finally authorized it. Pilots can be less than ideal, because for SCS to survive longterm they need support from community residents, businesses and even police. There is also no guarantee that after that time period, the city and state would agree to let SCS continue.

“Knowing how New York works, funding doesn’t come until months after promised, and regulations take a long time,” Mike Selick, an associate director for the National Harm Reduction Coalition, told Filter. “Many of these programs may need to apply for funding and make changes to their building before really starting up. I just worry that the public support won’t come before the time the pilot [ends].”

Advocates are hopeful that Rhode Island’s authorization will make it easier for other states to enact similar legislation. While Selick is doubtful that Cuomo will ever sign off on de Blasio’s plan, he feels more optimistic about the legislation from Rivera and Rosenthal, which would allow SCS anywhere in New York state. Ithaca has already expressed interest. 

“We’re frankly at a point where our community just needs to act.”

“We’re frankly at a point where our community just needs to act. That is on us stepping up … forcing the government to take a position,” Saunders said. “We’ve long had the state’s support in setting up our [private] bathrooms that are a safe place to inject. I’ve shown them to people on national television. To open supervised consumption is such a minor change.”

As with all criminalized health care practices, underground SCS operate throughout the US and around the world without government approval. But SCS that open without authorization from city and state leaders risk staff and participant arrests, and of course the shutdown of the sites.

Besides risking seizure of buildings and equipment through civil asset forfeiture, the lifesaving SSP themselves could be lost if the governor revoked the special regulation that allows them to operate, or revoked the state funding that is so crucial to their budgets—funding Cuomo has not been above withholding in the past.

“Rhode Island can show other jurisdictions who are almost ready to pull the trigger that they can,” Selick said. “Everyone is hesitant to be first to do this. But once one place accepts, we’ll see lots of other cities following.”

Photograph via New York State

The post With Rhode Island Safe Consumption Win, Pressure Mounts on New York appeared first on Filter.

The legislation was approved by the House of Representatives last month, when lawmakers also accepted a Senate companion version. Last week, the Senate, which had passed an earlier version of the bill in February, approved changes and gave final approval, sending the proposal to Gov. Dan McKee (D).

The governor didn’t issue a statement on the legislation, but his office noted in a press release that he signed it along with more than 20 other bills.

Under the new law, individual municipalities will still need to authorize the facilities to operate in their jurisdictions during the two-year pilot program.

The bill was partly informed by recommendations from an overdose task force convened under former Gov. Gina Raimondo (D), and it also calls for the creation an advisory committee. That panel will be required to advise the state Department of Health on how to “maximize” the benefits of the centers.

“The opioid epidemic has become a tremendous public health crisis, with overdoses of prescription and non-prescription opioids claiming a record number of lives,” Rep. John Edwards (D), sponsor of the House bill, said in a press release when lawmakers sent it to the governor last week. “Not only do harm reduction centers severely mitigate the chance of overdose, they are a gateway to treatment and rehabilitation of people with substance abuse disorder.”

“These locations will be under the supervision of trained medical staff who can direct addicts toward substance use disorder treatment,” he said. “It’s a way to tackle this epidemic while saving lives in the process.”

Senate Health and Human Services Chairman Joshua Miller (D), who sponsored his chamber’s version of the bill, said that “if we are truly going to rein in the drug overdose epidemic, we must recognize drug addiction as the health problem it is, rather than as merely a crime.”

“People who are addicted need help and protection from the most dangerous possibilities of addiction,” he said.

Advocates cheered the historic achievement.

“Today’s victory in Rhode Island gives us hope that there are policymakers that are willing to actually lead and do what needs to be done to save lives in the face of one of the worst public health crises of our time,” Lindsay LaSalle, managing director of policy for the Drug Policy Alliance, said in a press release.

“With at least 92,000 of our friends and family members lost to overdose in 2020 alone, we simply cannot wait any longer,” she continued. “There are mountains of evidence, from years and years of experience in other countries, to show that these centers save lives, increase the likelihood of a person entering treatment and provide people access to other vitally important health resources.”

Haley McKee, co-chair of the Substance Use Policy Education & Recovery PAC, said she hopes the move will “set a precedent for other states to follow suit, with Rhode Island being the leader.”

The Rhode Island Senate in 2019 passed a similar bill to create a harm reduction center pilot program, but it did not advance through the House. And last year, a Massachusetts legislative committee approved a bill that would legalize safe injection sites, but it did not become enacted.

A similar harm reduction bill in California, sponsored by Sen. Scott Wiener (D), was approved in the state Senate in April, but further action has been delayed until the beginning of 2022.

The senator said in a press release that he’s “extremely disappointed” about the delay. However, it’s a two-year legislative session in California and so the current bill is still alive.

“I do believe we will pass SB 57 next year,” Wiener said. “It passed the Senate this year, and the Assembly Health Committee has repeatedly passed the bill over the past five years. I’m optimistic that the Committee will, indeed, pass the bill in January.”

Former Gov. Jerry Brown (D) vetoed legislation in 2018 that would’ve established a safe injection site pilot program.

This year, a federal court blocked a Philadelphia nonprofit from opening a harm reduction center but its backers are pursuing an appeal—and it’s not clear if the Justice Department under President Joe Biden will take a different stance on the issue than the Trump administration did.

In 2018, a congressional subcommittee approved legislation to specifically prohibit Washington DC from using local tax dollars to help open SCS. But that provision was not enacted and has not been reintroduced since.

A 2020 study found that people “who reported using supervised injection facilities on an at least weekly basis had a reduced risk of dying compared to those who reported less than weekly or no use of this health service.”

Meanwhile in Rhode Island, the House Finance Committee last week heard testimony on one of three proposals introduced this session to legalize marijuana for adult use. Legislative leaders and the governor’s office have indicated they’d like to reconcile the differences between those measures and potentially return to vote on a compromise bill later this year.

The Senate already passed a separate cannabis legalization measure last month.

* DPA previously provided a restricted grant to The Influence Foundation, which operates Filter, to support a Drug War Journalism Diversity Fellowship.

Photograph via Wikimedia Commons/Creative Commons 3.0

This story was originally published by Marijuana Moment, which tracks the politics and policy of cannabis and drugs. Follow Marijuana Moment on Twitter and Facebook, and sign up for its newsletter.

The post Rhode Island Makes History by Legalizing Safe Consumption Sites appeared first on Filter.

The bill, S. 604, was introduced the same day Rhode Island Gov. Dan McKee (D) unveiled a plan to legalize marijuana for adult use through his 2022 budget proposal. Earlier last week, legislative leaders introduced their own measure to legalize and regulate commercial sales of cannabis.

The separate Senate drug decriminalization bill would not legalize the substances, but it would significantly reduce penalties for possessing them. Under current state law, possession is classified as a crime and subject to up to three years imprisonment and as much as $5,000 in fines. A criminal record brings another set of consequences, often denying access to employment, education, housing and public services.

S. 604 would replace those penalties with a $100 civil fine and no threat of jail time. The bill also bars law enforcement from arresting people for possessing drugs, although individuals could still be arrested if they fail to truthfully identify themselves to police for a citation.

Fines would double if not paid within 30 days and double again after 90 days.

The substances themselves would stay illegal under the proposal, subject to seizure if found. State laws against manufacturing, distributing or possessing with the intent to distribute would also remain in place.

Rhode Island lawmakers are considering the establishment of safe consumption sites.

The measure includes a few other policy changes, such as lowering the state’s fine for people between 17 and 18 years old caught with less than an ounce of marijuana to $100, down from the current $150 fine. It also specifies that people caught possessing drugs could be subject to performing up to 100 hours of community service or completing a drug-counseling and education program.

S. 604 was introduced Thursday by Sens. Tiara Mack, Jonathon Acosta, Cyntha Mendes, Jeanine Calkin, Kendra Anderson and Samuel Bell, all Democrats. It has been referred to the Senate Judiciary Committee but hasn’t yet been scheduled for a hearing.

Separately, Rhode Island lawmakers are considering the establishment of safe consumption sites in an effort to stem an onslaught of overdose deaths that has only gotten worse during the pandemic. The state Senate last month passed legislation that would legalize what the bill calls “harm reduction centers,” defined as “community based resource[s] for health screening, disease prevention and recovery assistance where persons may safely consume pre-obtained controlled substances.”

If the House passes a companion bill and the governor signs the legislation, Rhode Island would be the first US state to legalize the sites, which advocates say could prevent overdose deaths and destigmatize substance use disorders.

Meanwhile, McKee and leaders in the Senate are pushing competing versions of legislation to legalize marijuana. Though the proposals differ on taxes, social equity provisions and how the new markets would be regulated, both are notably different from the plan put forward by former Gov. Gina Raimondo (D) prior to her leaving office to join the Biden administration. Raimondo’s plan would have created a state-run cannabis industry, the first in the country.

McKee gave initial insights into his perspective on the reform in January, saying that, “It’s time that [legalization] happens” and that he’s “more leaning towards an entrepreneurial strategy there to let that roll that way.”

House Speaker Joseph Shekarchi (D), meanwhile, has said he’s “absolutely” open to the idea of cannabis legalization but also leans toward privatization.

“I certainly do think we’ll act on the issue, whether it’s more private or more state.”

Late last year, the Senate Finance Committee began preliminary consideration of legalization in preparation for the 2021 session, with lawmakers generally accepting the reform as an inevitability. “I certainly do think we’ll act on the issue, whether it’s more private or more state,” said Sen. Ryan Pearson (D) at the time.

The growing momentum in Rhode Island also comes as lawmakers in neighboring Connecticut are also moving toward legalizing marijuana this year. Gov. Ned Lamont (D) included a cannabis legalization plan in his budget request last month, though advocates have been critical of several provisions, particularly as they concern social equity and home cultivation.

Nearby states have also seen drug decriminalization bills introduced this legislative session, including one this month in Vermont. That bill would reduce penalties to a $50 fine or a referral to a health screening. “We continue to treat drug abusers as criminals when they should just be patients,” one of the bill’s sponsors, Rep. Logan Nicoll (D), told Marijuana Moment.

Legislators in California, Connecticut, Florida, Hawaii, Kansas, Missouri, New York, Washington State and Virginia have also introduced drug policy reform bills during the 2021 session.

A Republican in Iowa, one of an increasing number of GOP lawmakers taking a direct role in drug reform, introduced a bill to remove psilocybin from the list of controlled substances and filed another piece of legislation to let seriously ill patients use psychedelic mushrooms, LSD, DMT and other drugs.

In New York, lawmakers are considering both a measure to decriminalize drugs and a separate bill that would decriminalize psilocybin and psilocin, the chief psychoactive components in psychedelic mushrooms.

Photograph via Wikimedia Commons/Creative Commons 2.0

This story was originally published by Marijuana Moment, which tracks the politics and policy of cannabis and drugs. Follow Marijuana Moment on Twitter and Facebook, and sign up for its newsletter.

The post Drug Decriminalization Bill Unveiled in Rhode Island appeared first on Filter.

A bill to authorize the creation of SCS, or what the lawmakers are calling “Harm Reduction Centers,” has returned to the state’s General Assembly after first being introduced in 2019. This time, “there’s really been strong support,” Haley McKee, co-chair of the Substance Use Policy, Education, & Recovery PAC and a lobbyist in support of the newly reintroduced H 5245 and S 0016, told Filter. “I’ve seen a lot more involvement of people with lived or professional expertise.”

On February 23, the state Senate passed S 0016, which would establish an advisory committee to make recommendations to the state health department’s director on regulating SCS. However, it’s unclear when the House Committee on Health and Human Services—which is currently reviewing the chamber’s version, H 5245—will vote on it, much less when it will move to a floor vote.

If the House passes H 5245, and the legislation is signed by Governor Gina Raimondo, Rhode Island could be first state to legalize SCS. Lawmakers are defining the “Harm Reduction Centers” as “community based resource[s] for health screening, disease prevention and recovery assistance where persons may safely consume pre-obtained controlled substances.”

Unlike the House version, the Senate bill stipulates a liability protection explicitly shielding from arrest and prosecution at least “property owners, managers, employees, volunteers, clients or participants, and state, city, or town government employees acting in the course and scope of employment.”

The 10-person advisory committee must include three people with lived experience.

Of note, the 10-person advisory committee must include three people with lived experience—one “who has been recently incarcerated and currently being treated for a substance abuse disorder”; another who is “in recovery” and “works in the field of overdose prevention or recovery”; and one “who has suffered a drug overdose or a family member thereof.” One law enforcement officer must also be included.

The House Committee on Health and Human Services has reviewed the bill for a second time and heard testimony from multiple experts. McKee believes it is here, in the House, that the political fight for the SCS will play out; this chamber of the General Assembly has been less open to passing reforms. But “there has been a change in leadership in the House”—from conservative Democrat Nicholas Mattiello to the slightly more liberal Democrat Joseph Shekarchi —and she believes “the new House speaker is more fair to these kinds of reform.”

A diverse group of witnesses called on the House Committee to green-light the bill. Jorge Elorza, mayor of the state’s capital, Providence, recognized its potential to lower the number of fatalities. “By connecting people who use drugs with necessary health care professionals to prevent overdoses and make referrals for counseling or other medical treatment, the harm reduction centers may significantly reduce the impact of the overdose crisis on our communities,” Elorza wrote in his testimony.

Written testimony by Providence Mayor Jorge Elorza to the House Committee, dated February 9, 2021

Dr. Elizabeth Samuels, a Brown University professor of emergency medicine and an expert in substance use disorder treatment, agreed with Elorza, citing the breathtaking success of international SCS. “Across the over 120 centers in Canada, Australia and Europe, there has never been a death in a harm reduction center. Not one,” Samuels wrote in her testimony. “This alone should be reason enough to spur us to establish these facilities in Rhode Island.”

She also noted that, contrary to the derogatory smears of SCS as “shooting galleries,” people who access them are more likely to enter substance use disorder treatment. “I care for people who have experienced an overdose during every shift I work in the emergency department,” she wrote. “I know that we can and must do better for our neighbors and community members who have a substance use disorder or who use drugs.”

She added that most overdose patients decline treatment at the time of their emergency department visit. “This underscores the need for Harm Reduction Centers, a place where people can engage on their own terms with people they trust.”

Written testimony by Dr. Elizabeth Samuels of Brown University to the House Committee, dated February 23, 2021

“People who use controlled substances are members of our community,” wrote Bella Robinson, a sex worker activist and executive director of the local sex worker rights group, COYOTE RI. “We don’t want to see them to be arrested, and we don’t want them to die from an overdose”

The House bill is being held for further study. McKee is not quite sure of the timeline ahead, but said that the fact that it’s headed for its third review is not cause for alarm. “Most bills don’t get voted right out of committee.” McKee intends to focus on winning the approval of the House Speaker Shekarchi, whom she hopes to engage in further advocacy.

Despite all that, she remains excited for what’s to come:

“I’m cautiously optimistic we’ll have the first state law.”

Photograph of the Rhode Island State House via Wikimedia Commons/Creative Commons

The post Will Rhode Island Be the First State to Legalize Safe Consumption Sites? appeared first on Filter.