A nonprofit proposing to open the nation’s first safe injection site has secured an initial legal victory, with a federal judge rejecting arguments the harm reduction site would violate a portion of the Controlled Substances Act colloquially known as the “crack house” statute.

U.S. District Judge Gerald A. McHugh of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania on Wednesday denied a motion for declaratory judgment on the pleadings filed by U.S. Attorney William McSwain of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. McSwain’s office had argued that the proposed site, which would include a “consumption room” where medical staff would oversee heroin injections, would violate the law.