Pubdate: Tue, 23 Feb 2016 Source: Times-Tribune, The (Scranton PA) Copyright: 2016 Associated Press Contact: http://www.thetimes-tribune.com Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/4440 Author: David Klepper, Associated Press Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?142 (Supervised Injection Sites) ITHACA MAYOR PROPOSES SUPERVISED HEROIN USE In New Approach, City Plans to Treat Addiction As Public Health Issue. ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) - The mayor of Ithaca wants his city in upstate New York to host the nation's first supervised injection facility, enabling heroin users to shoot illegal drugs into their bodies under the care of a nurse without getting arrested by police. The son of an addict who abandoned his family, Ithaca Mayor Svante Myrick is only 28 years old, but knows intimately how destructive drugs can be. As he worked his way from a homeless shelter into the Ivy League at Cornell University and then became Ithaca's youngest mayor four years ago, Mr. Myrick encountered countless people who never got the help they needed. "I have watched for 20 years this system that just doesn't work," Mr. Myrick explained in an Associated Press interview. "We can't wait anymore for the federal government. We have people shooting up in alleys. In bathroom stalls. And too many of them are dying." Describing his proposals to the AP ahead of a formal announcement planned for Wednesday, the mayor said creating a place where addicts can inject heroin safely is a key part of a holistic approach to drug abuse that Ithaca will be rolling out, one that treats addiction more like a public health issue than a problem for the criminal justice system to solve. Nurses or physicians could quickly administer an antidote if a user overdoses, while addicts also could get clean syringes and be directed to treatment and recovery programs, he said. Hard sell Mr. Myrick expects supervised injection sites to be a hard sell in Albany, let alone in Washington, D.C., but his political sensibilities reflect what polls show is a growing belief among younger Americans that the war on drugs announced in 1971 by President Richard Nixon has failed. "I think for a lot of people this is going to sound like a weird concept - 'Aren't you just encouraging them to use drugs?"' he said. "But I think it's more possible now than at any time in our history. The opioid epidemic is affecting more people and we know we can't wait any longer for the federal government to do something." Canada, Europe and Australia are already working to reduce overdose deaths with these facilities. In the United States, even the idea of creating a supervised injection site faces significant legal and political challenges. But Mr. Myrick sees an opening now in response to huge increases in overdose deaths nationwide. In New York state, overdose deaths involving heroin and other opiates shot from 186 in 2003 to 914 in 2012. Alternatives to jail Ithaca officials began looking seriously at alternatives to simply jailing addicts after the city had three fatal overdoses and 13 nonfatal overdoses in a three-week span in 2014. The city of 30,000, which hosts Ithaca College as well as Cornell, is one of New York's most liberal communities and is a prime candidate for new approaches, Mr. Myrick said. Mr. Myrick crafted his plan in collaboration with police and prosecutors, overcoming initially strong opposition from the elected district attorney, Gwen Wilkinson. "What brought me around was the realization that this wouldn't make it more likely that people will use drugs," Ms. Wilkinson said. "What it would do is make it less likely that people will die in restaurant bathrooms." - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom