Maggie Hart, [email protected]
New York City, N.Y. – Yesterday, health experts and advocates kicked off Overdose Prevention Center Solidarity Week with a virtual press conference making the case for overdose prevention centers. Speakers included Congresswoman Bonnie Watson Coleman (NJ, District 12), Brandon Marshall, PhD, Professor of Epidemiology at the Brown University School of Public Health, Laura Thomas, MPP, MPH, Senior Director of HIV & Harm Reduction Policy at San Francisco AIDS Foundation, Rebecca Blair, Director of Strategic Initiatives, Fair and Just Prosecution, and others.
“As we have seen here today, the movement to expand OPCs is strong and gaining even more momentum across the country,” said Kellen Russoniello, Director of Public Health for the Drug Policy Alliance. “We know we cannot wait any longer. Our community members, our friends, our families continue to die while policymakers fail to support proven public health interventions. It is not acceptable to let stigma, fear mongering, and politics continue to prevent the approaches that will save our loved ones. Every day that our elected leaders delay action on evidence-based solutions to the overdose crisis, more lives are needlessly lost. We need decisive action in support of OPCs now.”
Overdose prevention centers (OPCs), also known as safe consumption sites or harm reduction centers, are places where people who use drugs can use pre-obtained substances under the supervision of staff members who are trained to intervene at the first sign of a potential overdose. Staff members also provide drug checking supplies and safe equipment to decrease risk, prevent infection, and reduce the spread of infectious diseases.
“Every overdose is a tragedy, an unnecessary tragedy at that,” said Congresswoman Bonnie Watson Coleman (NJ, District 12). “OPCs save lives. They are places where those struggling with addiction can be safe and get the help that they need if wanted. And they keep our community stay safe by reducing needles and syringes and drug usage outside of centers. As a grandmother of a fabulous 11-year-old granddaughter, I want her to have safe places to play where she doesn’t encounter things like syringes and needles. OPCs also provide enormous public health benefits. They decrease hospital room visits, prevent infections like HIV through access to clean and safe needles, and save our country and local government money. We all have the opportunity to save lives, protect families, and repair communities. But it will take bold, forward-thinking that challenges the failed punitive approach of the past.”
OPCs provide participants with connections to critical resources, including counseling, laundry services, medical care, and evidence-based treatment. The centers also benefit the wider community by bringing drug use indoors, reducing the presence of hazardous waste in surrounding neighborhoods, and alleviating the reliance on emergency medical services to respond to potential overdoses. Over 200 overdose prevention centers operate around the world, and their effectiveness has been proven by an extensive body of research.
“Decades of research from other countries has demonstrated the public health and community benefits of OPCs,” said Brandon Marshall, PhD, Professor of Epidemiology at the Brown University School of Public Health and the Founding Director of the People, Place & Health Collective. “They need to be opened in the US so we can study their effectiveness here and learn how they might help address the nation’s overdose crisis in communities large and small.”
In 2021, OnPoint NYC opened the first sanctioned overdose prevention centers in the United States, where they have intervened in over 1,570 potential drug overdoses, connected 5,330 participants to vital resources, and properly disposed of nearly 2.5M units of hazardous waste in the surrounding community. In 2021, Rhode Island voted to authorize overdose prevention centers, and in 2024 Providence City Council authorized its first site, which is expected to open later this year. In 2023, Minnesota also approved overdose prevention centers at the state level. And this summer, Vermont authorized their first overdose prevention center, which will open in Burlington.
The unregulated, increasingly potent drug supply and the spread of fentanyl have driven an increase in overdose deaths nationwide, with 109,000 people dying of a fatal overdose in 2022. The progress being made in Vermont, Rhode Island, Minnesota, New York, and elsewhere across the country demonstrates that local governments have the ability, and a responsibility, to respond to this unmitigated crisis.
“In just over 20 years, more than 1.1 million people have died as a result of a drug overdose, leaving countless Americans grieving the loss of a parent, sibling, family member, friend, or loved one,” said Miriam Aroni Krinsky, Executive Director of Fair and Just Prosecution and a former federal prosecutor who worked on organized crime and narcotics cases. “Prosecutors can and should play a crucial role in shifting the criminal legal system away from failed drug criminalization policies of the past, including by providing support for evidence-based harm reduction approaches such as overdose prevention sites. Saving lives should always be the starting point of any conversation around public safety, and it has long been clear that proven alternatives to conviction, incarceration, and stigmatization can both save lives and protect our communities.”
In addition to outlining key areas where progress is being made on OPCs, the virtual event underscored grassroots support for the facilities. Overdose Prevention Center Solidarity Week, a series of community-led events demonstrates the breadth of support and commitment to expanding OPCs. The week of coordinated events are being held in honor of International Overdose Awareness Day and will put pressure on local lawmakers to take action on OPCs, which organizers see as an underutilized tool in saving lives and improving health outcomes. Events are taking place this week in over fifteen different cities across California, Colorado, Delaware, Illinois, Maine, Missouri, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Vermont. Learn more about these local actions here.
“DPA has seen growing demand for OPCs, and growing momentum across the country. But too often that work goes overlooked or unnoticed,” said Gia Mitcham, New York Policy Associate for the Drug Policy Alliance and a lead organizer of OPC Solidarity Week. “So, we brought together a community of people and organizations from across the U.S. including harm reductionists, health advocates, service providers, people who use drugs, people in recovery, and those impacted by the drug war. And together, we laid the groundwork for Overdose Prevention Centers National Solidarity Week, a series of community-led events, rallies, marches, and mock OPCs taking place across the country.”
“All community members benefit from OPCs,” added Mitcham. “Simply put: OPCs are health. OPCs are safety. OPCs are community. And OPCs are love.”
Background:
A Week to Ramp Up the Pressure for Overdose Prevention Centers
Clearing the legal path for OPCs
Learn more about overdose deaths
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About Overdose Prevention Center Solidarity Week
The week is led by a community of people and organizations guided by a shared vision of a world that protects the health, safety, and dignity of people who use drugs. We are harm reductionists, health advocates, service providers, people who use drugs, people who live in communities harmed by the drug war, and people who have lost loved ones to overdose deaths. Together, we are fighting to put people over profit, save lives, and reduce harm for people who use drugs, including by opening, operating, and expanding overdose prevention centers.
About the Drug Policy Alliance
The Drug Policy Alliance is the leading organization in the U.S. working to end the drug war, repair its harms, and build a non-punitive, equitable, and regulated drug market. We envision a world that embraces the full humanity of people, regardless of their relationship to drugs. We advocate that the regulation of drugs be grounded in evidence, health, equity, and human rights. In collaboration with other movements and at every policy level, we change laws, advance justice, and save lives.
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