Somerville Mayor Wants To Open A Safe Drug Use Site

SOMERVILLE, MA — Mayor Joseph Curtatone is planning to open a safe injection site for drug users. Curtatone told WBUR this week he wants to open a supervised consumption site next year to allow medical professionals to monitor drug use and potentially save an overdose victim's life.

"I just attended another funeral for someone who was a victim to that epidemic," Curtatone said in an interview with WBUR. He added that leaders need to be "bold" to combat the opioid crisis.

But the announcement is already receiving pushback from federal authorities. Massachusetts U.S. Attorney Andrew Lelling said a facility for people to inject themselves with heroin and fentanyl is illegal at both state and federal levels.

"Barring a change in the Justice Department's position, if Somerville opens one, federal enforcement will follow," Lelling said in an emailed statement.

Lelling added there is a "surge in public misinformation" about safe consumption sites. He pointed to a death at an injection site last October in Ottawa, Canada, and said there is "no reliable statistical evidence" that such sites reduce addiction rates or overdose death rates, particularly in light of fentanyl and other synthetics being introduced into the opioid crisis.

"I agree that beating this public health crisis requires treatment and prevention as much as it does prosecution of drug traffickers," he said. "But supervised injection sites are not the answer."

Curtatone told WBUR a working group formed this summer is examining the legal, financial, community and operational impacts of an injection site. He does not have an opening date or location for the site but said emergency services in Somerville support the idea. Curtatone expects to have a plan by the end of the year, WBUR reported.