Future Retirement Success
  • Politics
  • Business
  • Investing
  • Stocks
  • Politics
  • Business
  • Investing
  • Stocks

Future Retirement Success

Investing

America’s First State-Sanctioned Overdose Prevention Center Opens in Providence, RI

by December 16, 2024
December 16, 2024
America’s First State-Sanctioned Overdose Prevention Center Opens in Providence, RI

Jeffrey A. Singer

On December 10, the country’s first state-sanctioned overdose prevention center (OPC) held a ribbon-cutting ceremony in Providence, Rhode Island. The center, located at 45 Willard Avenue, near the Rhode Island Hospital campus, was established and will be operated by the private non-profit harm reduction organization Project Weber/​RENEW.

In July 2021, Rhode Island Governor Daniel McKee signed into law a bill authorizing two pilot OPCs in the state, which would receive no taxpayer funding and be regulated, inspected, and licensed by the Rhode Island Department of Health. Once it gets the final green light from the Department of Health, the center will open.

As I wrote in a 2023 Cato Policy Analysis, “OPCs have a more-than-30-year track record of preventing overdose deaths, HIV, hepatitis, and other diseases, and of helping people with substance use disorder find treatment. As of August 2022, 147 OPCs are providing services in 91 communities in 16 countries.” The first government-sanctioned OPC began operating in Bern, Switzerland, in 1986 and continues to operate.

Two city-sanctioned OPCs have been operating in New York City since the end of 2021. By the summer of 2023, they reversed more than 1,000 overdoses. A study reported earlier this year in The Lancet examined the overdose mortality rates in Toronto, Canada, between May 2017, when nine OPCs opened in the city, and December 2019. They found that overdose fatalities dropped significantly during that period in neighborhoods surrounding the OPCs but not in other neighborhoods.

The Providence OPC will have eight injection/​us booths and two smoking rooms that can accommodate an additional eight people for smoking. As I mentioned in a previous blog post, an increasing number of people are smoking fentanyl rather than injecting it. With drug dealers increasingly offering fentanyl in pill form rather than as a powder, users are finding it more convenient to crush and smoke the substance instead of dissolving the powder for injection.

Advocates for public health have urged individuals who use drugs to transition to non-injection methods, as these are associated with a lower risk of skin infections, soft tissue damage, and blood-borne diseases. Smoking fentanyl may also decrease the risk of overdose because it enables users to adjust the dosage better to reach their intended effect, a process that is more challenging with injection. This switch to smoking might help explain the recent tapering of the drug overdose death rate.

Unfortunately, while the New York City and Providence OPCs are officially sanctioned in their local jurisdictions, they remain federally illegal because of 21 U.S.C. Section 856, the so-called “crack house statute,” which federally prohibits entities from knowingly permitting people to use federally illicit substances on their premises. Thus far, the Department of Justice has exercised prosecutorial discretion by not moving in to shut down these centers and arrest those who operate them. But that might change in the incoming administration. Congress should repeal or amend the law to allow OPCs to save lives in states and cities that sanction them.

0
FacebookTwitterGoogle +Pinterest
previous post
DOGE Recommendations: Reform the Tax Treatment of Health Care
next post
Trump says Turkey ‘did an unfriendly takeover’ in Syria as US-brokered cease-fire appears to fail

You may also like

New York Times Reports on the Polydrug Overdose...

November 13, 2023

Access to Methadone Treatment Is Pathetically Low

June 28, 2024

Hawley Wants to Restrict Funding of Political Speech

November 3, 2023

Memo to Congress: Before Acting on FISA, Get...

February 9, 2024

Friday Feature: Bramblewood Learning Community

August 18, 2023

GOP Bill Hikes Farm Subsidies

June 10, 2025

Devolve Federal Power to Reduce Division

February 7, 2025

New Data: Criminal Crossings Reached Record Highs in...

August 22, 2023

Krugman Misses the Mark on CBDCs—Again

June 1, 2023

Corporate Transparency Act Compels Americans to Incriminate Themselves

May 28, 2024

    Get free access to all of the retirement secrets and income strategies from our experts! or Join The Exclusive Subscription Today And Get the Premium Articles Acess for Free

    By opting in you agree to receive emails from us and our affiliates. Your information is secure and your privacy is protected.

    Recent Posts

    • Jeremy Hunt: ‘We’re over-medicalising anxiety and depression with sick notes’

      August 2, 2025
    • Cambodia to nominate Trump for Nobel Peace Prize for role in ending country’s conflict with Thailand

      August 2, 2025
    • WATCH: Trump says he is hopeful Hillary Clinton will be investigated for election fraud

      August 1, 2025
    • Trump moves nuclear submarines weeks after praising sub’s power in Iran strikes

      August 1, 2025
    • Recess on ice as Republicans hunker down for high-stakes nominee blitz

      August 1, 2025
    • Iran says it has ‘plenty of scientists’ left to restart uranium enrichment, despite US, Israeli strikes

      August 1, 2025

    Categories

    • Business (8,652)
    • Investing (2,168)
    • Politics (16,282)
    • Stocks (3,228)
    • About us
    • Privacy Policy
    • Terms & Conditions

    Disclaimer: futureretirementsuccess.com, its managers, its employees, and assigns (collectively “The Company”) do not make any guarantee or warranty about what is advertised above. Information provided by this website is for research purposes only and should not be considered as personalized financial advice. The Company is not affiliated with, nor does it receive compensation from, any specific security. The Company is not registered or licensed by any governing body in any jurisdiction to give investing advice or provide investment recommendation. Any investments recommended here should be taken into consideration only after consulting with your investment advisor and after reviewing the prospectus or financial statements of the company.

    Copyright © 2025 futureretirementsuccess.com | All Rights Reserved