'Safe-injecting sites' open in New York to curb overdose deaths

New York has become the first city in the United States to open sites where people can safely use illegal drugs such as heroin under medical supervision in a bid to curb deadly drug overdoses.

The overdose prevention centers, or "supervised injection sites", opened in East Harlem and Washington Heights on Tuesday.

The sites do not sell drugs to drug users, but allow them to bring their own.

Staff hand out clean needles, provide addiction treatment and administer naloxone to reverse overdoses, The New York Times said.

The sites are run by a new nonprofit group called OnPoint NYC.

"Being the 1st OPC site in the US is an honor and incredible step forward in ending the opioid crisis," the group tweeted on Tuesday.

The centers are widely backed by New York City's Mayor Bill de Blasio and Health Commissioner David Chokshi, but the state government will not run them.

De Blasio praised the facilities as a smart approach to manage drug users and addicts. The mayor believes that other major US cities could soon follow suit.

"I'm proud to show cities in this country that after decades of failure, a smart approach is possible," he said in a statement.

"After exhaustive study, we know the right path forward to protect the most vulnerable people in our city. Overdose prevention centers are a safe and effective way to address the opioid crisis."

Chokshi said overdose prevention centers are a key part of broader harm reduction.

The US has been grappling with a surge in drug use and overdose deaths amid the stress of the coronavirus pandemic.

Nationally, deaths from drug overdose rose to 100,000 in the 12 months to April 2021, according to the National Center for Health Statistics.

It was an increase of 30 percent over 2019, when there were 78,000 deaths.

In New York, more than 2,060 people died of drug overdoses last year, according to the city's health department. It was the highest drug-related death figure recorded in 21 years since records were kept.

Between January and March this year, there were 596 drug related-overdose deaths in the city.

Research by the city's health department found that the overdose prevention center program could save "up to 130 lives a year "and could also save $7 million in healthcare.

Potential tension

But Bridget Brennan, a New York special narcotics prosecutor, has expressed her opposition to the sites as she believes they could spark tension in the neighborhoods where they are placed.

Similar supervised injection sites already exist in Australia, some European countries and Canada. They have been successful in reducing drug use in public and reducing the spread of HIV/AIDS, according to a 2014 study published in the journal Science Direct.

In July, Rhode Island officially became the first state in the US to authorize supervised injection sites.

Other sites have been proposed in Denver, Philadelphia, Seattle and San Francisco.

But they have been met with opposition from the federal government. Federal law bans the operation of a site where people can take illegal drugs.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the opioid epidemic led to 500,000 deaths nationwide from 1999 to 2019.