MIDTOWN MANHATTAN, NY — New Yorkers are still dying from drug overdoses while Gov. Andrew Cuomo leaves plans for heroin injection facilities in limbo, protesters argued Monday. About 30 activists blocked a bus lane outside Cuomo’s Third Avenue office while urging the governor to clear the way for so-called safe consumption sites, which they say have been proven to save lives.
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The fight for safer consumption spaces in New York looked promising in October, after Governor Andrew Cuomo expressed tentative openness to them in a gubernatorial debate. Then he won reelection in early November. He has not taken action since.
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The rain was not yet falling on Monday morning, November 26, when a group of about 25 activists stormed through the streets of midtown Manhattan toward Governor Andrew Cuomo’s NYC office on Third Avenue, to demand what the state leader had already promised during his gubernatorial election: overdose prevention centers. Demonstrators also carried a large white tent with them, an example of the proposed overdose prevention centers.
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On Monday, in an effort to nudge the state toward supporting the pilot, activists with VOCAL-NY erected a pop-up safe injection room in front of the governor’s midtown office—a tactic once deployed against de Blasio prior to his endorsement of the sites. This time around, the demonstrators were joined by artist and photographer Nan Goldin, who founded the group P.A.I.N Sackler to hold the Sackler family and Purdue Pharma responsible for their central role in the epidemic.
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VOCAL New York is on a statewide tour this week to talk about safe consumption spaces and combating drug overdoses. These spaces are also known as supervised injection facilities. They give heroin users and others a place to take drugs with medical professionals on hand in case something goes wrong. Canada already has some facilities, and Europe has had them for years. The idea has been proposed in Ithaca and New York City. But state law would need to be changed to allow them. Joining us to make the case for doing that are Terrell Jones and Robert Suarez from VOCAL NY and Cortney Lovell from WRise Consulting.
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Advocacy organization Vocal NY and a group of health care providers are pushing a controversial effort to help with the opioid crisis: supervised injection facilities where anyone who walks can have clean needles and space to inject drugs.
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In response to New York’s drug overdose crisis, a group of healthcare professionals and public health advocates are launching a statewide campaign, calling for safe injection sites. A public exhibit will be put on display Thursday at the Albany Campus Center from 1 to 5 p.m.
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To help more drug users and homeless people, some on the outreach frontlines are arguing for programs that are not focused on abstinence. The programs include “wet houses,” where people can drink alcohol on-site but still receive city services, and supervised injection facilities, where people are permitted to use intravenous drugs like heroin.
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At last weekend’s syringe and needle exchange, Courtney and other HIV Education Prevention Project of Alameda staffers unveiled what they call a “chill room.” It’s a pop-up tent designed as a safe injection site manned by a medical professional. The group said there are 90 such sites worldwide, but the only one in North America is in Vancouver.
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Creating places where drug users could go to shoot up heroin or smoke crack is an increasingly popular idea. Treatment advocates say it’s a recognition that addiction is a public health crisis. A mock up of a drug consumption site was on display in various Seattle parks this week.
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