Lawmakers and advocates are making a last-minute push for safe injection sites in New York State — but the controversial effort to contain the opioid epidemic is likely to stall.
State Sen. Gustavo Rivera (D-Bronx) and Assemblywoman Linda Rosenthal (D-Manhattan) introduced legislation to create the so-called “shooting sites.”
But the lack of Republican support means the measure has little chance of becoming law this year.
Rivera acknowledged as much but is hopeful that next year will be different.
“I live in hope,” he said.
The effort comes after The Post reported that Parks Department employees pick up 5,000 dirty needles a week from Bronx parks.
Rivera said he’s not sure how much the injection sites would cost, but argued they would be cheaper than healthcare for addicts who catch diseases from shared needles.
He said many services the centers will provide are already being paid for and could simply be centralized.
That includes healthcare and recovery services.
Opponents argue that state-sanctioned shooting galleries would draw crime and quality-of-life issues to neighborhoods surrounding the centers.
Rivera insists that doesn’t make sense.
“It is already happening in their neighborhoods,” he said. “It’s happening in public parks. It’s happening in bathrooms of the restaurants they go to. It is happening in the back rooms of businesses that they walk by every single day… We want to make sure that we can put it in a place where it can be controlled.”
Kassandra Frederique, director of the New York State Drug Policy Alliance, grew up on the Upper West Side and says the suffering she saw in childhood prompted her to get involved.
“I have seen how drug addiction has hurt people I love and part of why I think that safe consumption spaces are important is because I’ve seen how the overdose crisis has ripped families apart,” she said.
“For all the people who are talking about people who use drugs in their neighborhood, they [addicts] are there,” she said.
Gov. Cuomo and the state Department of Health have yet to weigh in on the issue.