​The organization operating the nation’s first and only sanctioned supervised consumption centers announced a milestone in overdose interventions on Monday.
As of Jan. 23, 114 drug overdoses were averted at the two supervised injection sites in Manhattan, both of which are operated by OnPoint NYC.
The sites, in Washington Heights and East Harlem, first opened on November 30, 2021. 

What You Need To Know

• OnPoint NYC opened the nation’s first and only sanctioned supervised consumption centers on November 30, 2021


• As of January 23, 2022, the organization reported 114 drug overdose interventions

• Their facilities have been used 4,974 times by 585 registered people

Officials report that 585 people have registered at the sites and have used the locations 4,974 times.
“We are humanizing and giving hope to people that far too often society sees as disposable and defines them by their mistakes,” said Sam Rivera, executive director at Onpoint NYC. “And while the number of overdose interventions is a significant milestone, my staff and I don’t see the number, we see the beautiful people that we work with behind the stat – the participant struggling with addiction and desperately trying to secure a job to buy holiday presents for his daughter or the participant whose family has given up on them and is now desperately looking for a support system to help them through trauma.”
Since their opening, many neighbors in both Washington Heights and East Harlem have spoken out against the sites. Residents say they’ve seen a negative impact in the communities that already struggled with drug use on the streets.
“We're already dealing with the homelessness, the loitering, the public urination, defecation, the crime, everything that's happening,” says Peggy Morales, district leader for the 68th Assembly District Part B. “Well, why is it that other communities are not absorbing their fair share of the responsibility? These people do deserve these services and they need our assistance. And we should never turn our backs on them because that would be wrong. We are here. We need to look out for one another, but we also need to be fair about how that happens.”
Community members feel drug users from all over the city are flocking to the centers. 
It’s a concern the executive director of the sites says is a valid one. 

THIS SITE SAVES LIVES
ESTE SITIO SALVA VIDAS
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​By Meryl Kornfield
January 15, 2022 at 12:00 p.m. EST, Washington Post- Health

NEW YORK — In tears, Kailin See recounts a story that would not have been possible just weeks before.  A man addicted to heroin, who otherwise would have injected himself alone, visited one of the country’s first authorized locations to use drugs with supervision in early December. He had a job interview later that day, hoping to earn two paychecks by Christmas so he could afford gifts for his children, he told staffers at the Washington Heights site. But when he drew the drugs into his veins, he began to nod off and go pale, a sign of what could have been a lethal overdose. The trained workers sprang into action, giving him oxygen. He quickly came to, said See, one of the main organizers of the site.

In nondescript commercial buildings in Washington Heights and East Harlem, workers watch people use illegal drugs and step in when they overdose, a solution to the drug crisis once considered too fringe to operate in the open. Years of legal battles and debate delayed efforts by cities and states to supervised consumption sites, forcing the facilities to operate underground. These new locations, approved by the then-mayor of New York City, could spur a shift toward offering services nationwide, drug policy experts say. But these sites still present a tangled knot of concerns: The federal government has not approved overdose-prevention centers, still considered an untested concept, and neighbors worry about drawing crime to their area.

TO CONTINUE READING: https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2022/01/16/inside-first-supervised-overdose/?fbclid=IwAR2C-tDKs9OSuiB7Ef0GCZgSqolov8PYqi-zN-LFZDszDD2XST

By: Dan Grossman
Posted at 12:16 PM, Jan 04, 2022      ABC 15 Arizona

Six years ago, fentanyl was a relatively new and unheard-of drug. Developed in 1959, it was primarily used as an anesthetic and pain reliever for medical purposes without the side effect of nausea. It is 100 times more potent than morphine and 50 times more potent than heroin.
In 2015, however, fentanyl started to make its way into the United States in noticeable doses. As a synthetic drug, it is cheaper to produce than drugs like heroin, which require cultivation. Because of its potency, people require far less fentanyl to get highSix years ago, fentanyl was a relatively new and unheard-of drug. Developed in 1959, it was primarily used as an anesthetic and pain reliever for medical purposes without the side effect of nausea. It is 100 times more potent than morphine and 50 times more potent than heroin.


In 2015, however, fentanyl started to make its way into the United States in noticeable doses. As a synthetic drug, it is cheaper to produce than drugs like heroin, which require cultivation. Because of its potency, people require far less fentanyl to get high.
In the years since, drug dealers started using fentanyl as a cheap substitute to cut their drugs and stretch them farther. Today, according to the CDC, fentanyl is the leading cause of death for adults ages 18-45 in the United States.
“We are in the worst overdose crisis we’ve ever been in in the United States,” said Lisa Raville, executive director of the Harm Reduction Action Center in Denver. “In a magical world there would be no drugs, but we live here.”
In the year ending in April 2021, fentanyl claimed the lives of 40,010 Americans ages 18-45. That’s more than car accidents (22,442), suicide (21,678), COVID (21,335), and cancer (17,114).
“What is driving these behaviors in the illicit market is clearly just profit, it’s greediness,” said Dr. Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse.

TO CONTINUE READING: https://www.abc15.com/news/national/fentanyl-is-the-leading-cause-of-death-in-americans-ages-18-45?fbclid=IwAR0O28bWzLm4oaVTNe7N-eLja_HxLsVGyK

Jon Levine and Kerry J. Byrne                     By January 1, 2022 10:49am Updated
New York Post

City health officials plan to install 10 vending machines across the Big Apple that will dispense clean needles and overdose-reversing Naloxone to drug users — an initiative it claims will help tear down barriers created by “white privilege.”
The Dec. 8 request for proposals was issued by the non-profit Fund for Public Health in New York, on behalf of city Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, which wants to launch a pilot program for the machines.
“Public health vending machines (PHVM) are an emerging strategy to support low-barrier access to naloxone, sterile syringes, and other harm reduction and wellness supplies,” reads the RFP for the machines, which will cost taxpayers $730,000.
The RFP also launched into a woke ideological exposition:
“The … DOHMH is committed to improving health outcomes for all New Yorkers by explicitly advancing racial equity and social justice. Racial equity does not mean simply treating everyone equally, but rather, allocating resources and services in such a way that explicitly addresses barriers imposed by structural racism (i.e. policies and institutional practices that perpetuate racial inequity) and White privilege.”

TO CONTINUE READING: https://nypost.com/2022/01/01/nyc-to-install-clean-needles-naloxone-vending-machines/