Establishing a Government Run Safe Injection Facility in the City of Philadelphia

Abstract

The City of Philadelphia is currently facing an opioid epidemic of unprecedented proportions, with 1,214 drug related overdoses in 2020 alone. The problem has been so detrimental that in 2019, the city had the highest rate of overdose deaths in the country among counties with a least one million residents. The city has made multiple efforts to combat the public health crisis including supporting a nonprofit organization’s attempt to establish the nation’s first safe injection facility within the city. The attempt would ultimately fail in the Third Circuit Court with a ruling that safe injection sites violate federal law. The following memorandum provides an alternative solution for the City of Philadelphia to implement a government-run safe injection facility under a provision in the Controlled Substances Act.