The mayor of Ithaca, NY, has proposed creating a public facility where heroin users can shoot up under medical supervision. The proposal by Mayor Svante Myrick would be modelled on similar public facilities in Europe, but would be the first in the United States.
However, Mayor Myrick's proposal is being met with what has been called a firestorm of opposition even before all the details of the facility have been officially unveiled.
"I've found myself in the middle of a storm here," Myrick told Reuters. "I've never received more emails, messages, text messages, tweets and Facebook posts."
The proposed facility would allow heroin users to inject the drug in a safe location. They would be monitored by public health workers to ensure they did not overdose. These health workers would also talk to heroin addicts about quitting and try to get them into addiction rehabilitation centers. Similar supervised facilities are located in Europe and Canada.
In recent years there has been what is being called an epidemic in the use and abuse of heroin and other opioid drugs, a category that includes prescription painkillers. There are 2.2 million Americans struggling with addiction, according to federal statistics.
Myrick's proposal met with immediate criticism. The city's police chief has stated that he will not condone the use of heroin, either in or out of a supervised facility. Some critics of the mayor's plan have suggested that money to set up a facility would be better spent on a rehabilitation center. Myrick compared the criticism with that seen with proposals for needle exchanges, which allow intravenous drug users to exchange used syringes for sterile ones. In any event, the mayor's plan would need to be approved by the state government.
Myrick, a Democrat, was elected in 2011. Ithaca is located in central Western New York and has a population of about 30,000 people.
