Ithaca Mayor Proposes Supervised Injection Sites

Ithaca’s new comprehensive drug policy was released publicly on Wednesday, Feb. 24, after nearly two years of study from the Municipal Drug Policy Committee formed by Mayor Svante Myrick in April 2014. After an Associated Press report hit the wires on Feb. 22 revealing the plan proposes a supervised injection facility for heroin users, outlets nationwide picked up the story. There is no supervised injection facility in the United States; Vancouver, Canada has the only two in North America.

To answer one prevalent question raised in online comments and on the street, the drugs in a supervised injection facility would be “user provided,” Myrick said.

“There are people on hand who can save you if you begin to overdose, if you get a bad shot,” Myrick said of the potential facility. “This facility is targeted more toward people who live on the street who inject outdoors or in unsafe places. They’re extremely vulnerable to attack, to burglary, to assault. They’re often in a rush because the cops might come around the corner or into the alley, so they shoot up fast.”

A supervised facility is also a place where “targeted treatment options” can be offered, Myrick said.

After hearing initial reports others also questioned the legality of a facility here for people to shoot illegal drugs.

“These are all questions we have to answer. We obviously can’t do this tomorrow,” Myrick said. “We have got to iron out what’s legal and what’s possible. Our first priority has got to be saving people’s lives and our second priority is liability.”

Matt Curtis, policy director for the HIV/AIDS and mass incarceration advocates VOCAL-NY, said of supervised injection: “There is no law anywhere in the United States that says you can’t do this.”

VOCAL-NY started campaigning with other organizations for supervised injection facilities about six months ago, Curtis said, and while no officials have yet offered public support, both the city and state health departments have “been very interested” in hearing any strategy to counter HIV/AIDS and the opioid epidemic.

The main challenge to a facility’s legality would likely come under the so-called “crack house” statute in the federal Controlled Substances Act, “designed for places where there’s simultaneously sales and use at the same time,” Curtis said.

“It’s obviously not designed to have any relevance to public health intervention,” Curtis said. “If an aggressive prosecutor wanted to screw with a pilot program, they might use [the statute] to shutter or otherwise interfere with that kind of program.”

Tompkins County District Attorney Gwen Wilkinson is on board; on Feb. 22, Myrick posted a quote in the AP story from Wilkinson multiple times on social media that read “Supervised injection won’t make more people will use drugs. It will make them less likely to die in restaurant bathrooms.”

Ithaca Police chief John Barber said in a statement that he is “wary of Supervised Injection Sites” and would not “condone the illegal use of heroin, supervised or not.”

Beyond the supervised injection facilities, “The Ithaca Plan: A Public Health and Safety Approach to Drugs and Drug Policy” is a 64-page report that contains many other policy recommendations to implement a “harm reduction” approach to handling drug use. The report recommends the creation of an Office of Drug Policy, a phone hotline for parents and loved ones, and a treatment navigator, like those who help people navigate health care options.

More inpatient and outpatient detox options are called for in the “Ithaca Plan,” including a freestanding 24-hour crisis center where law enforcement and anyone else could voluntarily bring someone for care. A methadone clinic and more widespread ability to prescribe Suboxone are also recommended, along with the continuance of practices like syringe exchange and disposal.

The report also gets into the social conditions that lead to drug use—in one survey the study cites, boredom was a “primary motivation.” Underemployment among the poor is also a problem. Increasing community programs like those at GIAC and the Youth Bureau until there are “few or no gaps between them” to decrease the chances of youth picking up a drug habit is part of the overall plan, Myrick said.

“Kids who report feeling strong social connections, they’re less likely to use drugs,” Myrick said. “The strongest correlation is when they ask kids ‘Do you feel like your life is chaotic?’ and they say yes, they are far more likely to start using drugs. We need to wrap our young people in a cocoon of community,” the mayor concluded. •