An Ithaca plan to provide safer consumption spaces to people addicted to drugs has received support from the American Medical Association and other medical professionals. Safer consumption spaces – also known as supervised injection facilities – are locations where people can legally consume previously-purchased illegal drugs with supervision from healthcare professionals. The AMA and other medical groups say the sites would help reduce overdose deaths and the spread of infectious disease. Besides just being a safe place to take drugs, Ithaca officials point to research that says people who use these safe spaces are more likely to enter treatment programs in the future. The New York Assembly is considering a bill that would authorize safer consumption spaces as an emergency public health tool to combat overdose deaths in the state. The measure is gaining steam across the country after 52,400 people died from opioid and heroin overdoses in the US two years ago, more people than traffic accidents and homicides combined.
