With just four weeks left in office, Mayor Bill de Blasio is opening the country’s first supervised shooting galleries in Upper Manhattan — amid a spike in overdose deaths and disturbing scenes of junkies shooting up on public sidewalks.
“Overdose Prevention Centers are a safe and effective way to address the opioid crisis. I’m proud to show cities in this country that after decades of failure, a smarter approach is possible,” de Blasio said in a statement Tuesday.
The nonprofit-run centers, in East Harlem and Washington Heights, are expected to open as early as Tuesday.
The locations were chosen based on “health need and depth of program experience,” according to the Health Department. The sites will provide clean needles and social services, but users must bring their own drugs.
Last year, over 2,000 New Yorkers died of drug overdoses, the highest since the city started tracking the figures in 2000. The most common drug involved in the fatalities is opioids. Between January and March this year, another 596 people lost their lives due to addiction. A city Health Department study found that the sites could save up to 130 people a year.
The mayor tried to push the controversial proposal to open a total of four sites before, but was blocked by Gov. Andrew Cuomo and President Donald Trump, who both opposed the plan.
City Council Minority Leader Joe Borelli (R-Staten Island) was skeptical about the program’s effectiveness.
“British Columbia has led North America in safe injection sites, all while crossing overdose death milestones every month. How anyone can see this as a solution to a serious problem is beyond me, never mind the concerns of the neighbors,” Borelli told The Post Tuesday.
Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-NY), whose district includes Staten Island and parts of southern Brooklyn, called on the Department of Justice to block the sites, noting that under former President Trump the DOJ said such sites would violate the federal Controlled Substances Act.
Malliotakis wrote U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland Tuesday urging him to “take swift action to enforce federal law.”
The congresswoman cited a Jan. 2021 Third Circuit Court of Appeals ruling that determined it was a federal crime for a supervised injection site run by a Philadelphia nonprofit to allow consumption of illegal drug use at its location.
“Instead of focusing on the root cause of the drug epidemic, Mayor de Blasio is enabling drug cartels that continue to break our laws, smuggle illegal drugs over our border, and prey on our children,” Malliotakis said.
“Crime and fentanyl use are at record highs because of open borders, botched bail reform, and anti-police policies that keep releasing criminal drug dealers back onto our streets. Opening taxpayer-funded heroin shooting galleries is not a proper solution. These centers not only encourage drug use but they will further deteriorate our quality of life,” she said.
De Blasio has largely turned a blind eye to daytime drug sprees in major city hubs like the Garment District and the Triangle Plaza Hub in the Bronx.
