Pubdate: Mon, 09 May 2016 Source: Commercial Appeal (Memphis, TN) Copyright: 2016 The Commercial Appeal Contact: http://web.commercialappeal.com/newgo/forms/letters.htm Website: http://www.commercialappeal.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/95 Author: David Klepper, Associated Press HEROIN SHOOT-UP ROOMS PROPOSED Federal Law Prohibits Sites That Would Give Supervision, Antidote Across the United States, users of heroin and other drugs have died in alleys behind convenience stores, on city sidewalks and in the bathrooms of fast-food joints - because no one was around to save them when they overdosed. An alarming 47,000 American overdose deaths in 2014 pushed elected leaders from coast to coast to consider government-sanctioned sites where heroin users can shoot up under the supervision of a doctor or nurse who can administer an antidote if necessary. "Things are getting out of control. We have to find things we can do for people who are addicted now," said New York state Assemblywoman Linda Rosenthal, who is working on legislation to allow supervised injection sites that also would include space for treatment services. Critics of the war on drugs have long talked about the need for a new approach to addiction, but the idea for supervised injection sites is now coming from state lawmakers in New York, Maryland and California, and city officials in Seattle, San Francisco and Ithaca, New York. While such sites have operated for years in places such as Canada, the Netherlands and Australia, they face legal and political challenges in the U.S. "It's a dangerous idea," said John Walters, drug czar under President George W. Bush. "It's advocated by people who seem to think that the way we should help sick people is by keeping them sick, but comfortably sick." In the U.S., which for decades has treated addiction as a law enforcement issue, the biggest hurdle remains federal law, which makes such facilities illegal. Supporters say officials in the nation's capital could grant an exemption or adopt a hands-off approach similar to the federal government's response to state medical marijuana programs. But Kevin Sabet, a former drug policy adviser to the Obama administration, put the chances of injection sites getting approval anytime soon at zero. - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom