Surgeon General Jerome Adams comes out in support of safe drug injection sites

MICHAELA WINBERG, BillyPenn.com | Spirited Media

Show Caption Hide Caption Future of safe injection sites remains uncertain for Delaware As more cities sign off on bringing safe injection sites to places hardest hit by the opioid and heroin epidemic, Delaware leaders have begun talking about what these places could do for the state.

If one thing’s for sure about the idea to open a safe injection site in Philly, it’s that the response has been massively conflicted. Over the last few months, people have debated the merits of the comprehensive user engagement site proposal, and community meetings about it have been rife with disagreement.

But the country’s top doctor has apparently decided he likes the idea.

U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Jerome Adams, appointed by President Trump, announced he supports the facilities on a national level. On Wednesday, he came out in support of various harm reduction measures to combat opioid addiction, including medication-assisted treatment, syringe exchange programs and safe injection sites, according to a report from Modern Healthcare.

To explain his support for these methods, which some find controversial, Adams cited their success in lowering opioid overdose deaths in other countries.

“As you look at France, they were able to drive down their opioid rates and their heroin usage by making it easier for folks to get access to MAT,” Adams said at an American College of Emergency Physicians forum in Washington, D.C. “So, we know that this can work.”

In the last year, Philly has been one of several cities — including Seattle, Denver, San Francisco and New York — to propose opening a safe injection site to help lower rates of opioid overdose deaths.

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This announcement by the top medical professional in the U.S. is especially notable because his state-level counterpart in Pennsylvania hasn’t yet taken a stance.

Pa. Secretary of Health Rachel Levine said in February that she had no comment on Philadelphia’s safe injection site proposal. (BTW, that’s despite the fact that she supported a different statewide harm reduction measure — Levine instituted a standing order prescription for naloxone, allowing all Pennsylvanians to access the overdose antidote.)

Philadelphia officials announced in January that they would “actively encourage” opening a safe injection site in the city. They called their proposal a comprehensive user engagement site in an attempt to emphasize that it would be connected to addiction treatment services, and people wouldn’t be limited to injection drugs — they could also use non-intravenous drug on site.

A nice summary of the evidence supporting supervised injection sites. See entire thread. https://t.co/HYTYkpe0su — Dr. Tom Farley (@DrTomFarley) February 1, 2018

In the months since, a handful of Philly people have sounded off on the proposal.

Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro and Praise 107.9 radio host Solomon Jones both came out against the idea. City Councilmembers Maria Quiñones-Sanchez and Cindy Bass said they needed more information before they could support the proposal, while city public health officials have welcomed it.

Adams previously pushed for harm-reduction approaches when he was Indiana’s health commissioner, and earlier this year issued an advisory calling for more people to carry naloxone. President Trump has yet to take an official position on safe injection sites.

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