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Somerville readies state's first safe-injection site

The Scope takes a look at plans by the city and Fenway Health to open a facility where drug users could inject themselves with medical help just a step away - and with access to information about treatment programs.

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Comments

I'm very much in favor of this, and I hope it goes as well as it has in other places. These programs can do a great deal of good.

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The theory is well intentioned and something I originally bought into, but I don’t think they’ve delivered on that hope in SF.

Pretty much an experiment that needs more data, particularly in the USA. As well as people willing to honestly assess potential fallout if it doesn’t live up to activist claims.

Hopefully Boston metro has different plans than California seems to have deployed.

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I'm confused what you mean here. San Francisco hasn't opened a safe injection site yet.

A site in Somerville or San Francisco would contribute to the exact kind of data you're saying is needed.

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Part of the issues of these things is they need lots of them, spread out. It's like the weed stores - when they only had three open in the state, it was legitimately disruptive, and the nimbys and hand-wringers could point to it and be like, SEE?? Traffic and Crime, just as we said!! Thank god the state went forward and let more of them open, and the impact spread out, and now it's no different than having a cell phone store open in your neighborhood.

Having ONE safe injection site for the whole state is going to be a mess, because it means everybody who wants to use at one will be there. That will attract people who want to sell to those who want to use, which then attracts a whole negative element. Mass & Cass is a documented example of how concentrating all these people in one spot leads to human misery.

We need dozens of these, all throughout the metro area and the suburbs.

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they offer showers, a place to do laundry, acupuncture, a place to take a nap, & counseling and other medical care if needed. really wonderful work, no one dies and some addicts even find themselves using less.

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This will save lives.

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