New York prosecutor slammed for plans to shut down supervised drug sites

Activists say the supervised drug sites help prevent deaths from overdose

A New York federal prosecutor has come under attack by activists for seeking to close two of the city’s sanctioned supervised drug consumption sites.

Damian Williams says that the methods used by the two OnPoint NYC sites in Harlem and Washington Heights are illegal and his office is looking to crack down or close the facilities.

“I have repeatedly said that the opioid epidemic is a law enforcement crisis and a public health crisis,” Mr Williams, the US attorney for the Southern District of New York, said in a statement to The New York Times. “But I am an enforcer, not a policymaker.”

Until New York policymakers sanction the sites, he said, the organisation is operating in violation of federal, state and local law.

“That is unacceptable,” Mr Williams said. “My office is prepared to exercise all options — including enforcement — if this situation does not change in short order.”

OnPoint NYC’s strategy is straightforward: Have people consume drugs under the watchful eye of their trained staff, who can intervene in the case of an overdose.

“The way people have seen drug users is disposable: get rid of them, put them in prison. I think a lot of that is a fear of the unknown,” Sam Rivera, the executive director of OnPoint NYC told The Independent last year.

“There’s been a relay race for many, many years to get to this point. Many colleagues I’ve lost and I love, friends and family I’ve lost and I love, who have been fighting for this kind of intervention because they know it works. They know we’ll keep them alive.”

“It sounds so radical, but radical is what works, right?” he said.

OnPoint NYC told The New York Times that its facilities have reversed 1000 overdoses since they opened their doors a year and a half ago.

And activists and non-profit groups across the boroughs have taken to X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, to condemn Mr Williams’s comments.

The Legal Action Center tweeted that New York Gov Kathy Hochul must authorise the overdose prevention centres or they “will remain vulnerable to stigma, NIMBYism, and interference that impedes their crucial work.”

The group, which provides free legal services in New York City, pointed out in a statement that there have been zero deaths among those who use OnPoint’s services.

“Inaction by Governor Hochul leaves the future of these lifesaving programs in jeopardy as stigma and misconceptions about people who use drugs and people who have substance use disorders cloud public perception and sway policy under the guise of public safety,” the statement read.

Dr Kaliris Salas-Ramirez, a neuroscientist who sits on the faculty at The City College of New York, called the work of OnPoint “the most humane access to care for people that misuse drugs.”

She added that the work done at overdose prevention centres is “evidence-driven” and will result in lives saved as well as doors open for those in need.

Former New York Mayor Bill de Blasio authorised the sites in one of his final acts as mayor calling the centres “a safe and effective way to address the opioid crisis.”