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People are allowed to use illicit drugs at the sites while under
the supervision of staffers who will be there to respond to
overdoses. They are currently being used in New York City, and
Rhode Island is the first state to authorize their use.
The opioid epidemic has hit Illinois and the rest of the country
hard, and became increasingly deadly when fentanyl appeared on
the scene. As a result, Illinois Republicans have called for
increased penalties for anyone dealing in fentanyl.
“While we are committed as a community to working with law
enforcement, we also don’t want to scare people away from these
sites,” said John Werning, executive director of Chicago
Recovery Alliance.
House Bill 2929 sponsor, state Rep. La Shawn Ford, D-Chicago,
said if signed into law, no tax dollars would be used.
“The opioid settlement fund will be the fund that we will use if
this becomes law to fund the program, so there will be no
general revenue funds,” said Ford.
The bill received bipartisan support in the Mental Health and
Addiction Committee. State Rep. Bill Hauter, R-Morton, said he
was torn over the proposal before voting in favor.
“The law and order and conservative part of me hated it because
of the usual reasons, but I just looked at this as a physician,
and we’ve got to do something different,” said Hauter.
Hauter believes the overdose prevention sites could help some
drug users get clean.
“Most of these people are not trying to get high anymore, they
just don’t want to withdraw, and so if we can get them on
naloxone, these places might be the place where they can get
treatment and get on the road to recovery,” said Hauter.
The bill is now headed to the House floor for consideration. |
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