Linda Montel shows off supplies on a check in desk at Safer Inside, a realistic model of a safe injection site in San Francisco. California Gov. Jerry Brown vetoed legislation Sept. 30, 2018, that would have given San Francisco permission to test-open supervised drug injection sites. (AP Photo/Eric Risberg, File)
A federal appeals court has dealt a significant blow to the efforts seeking to open the nation’s first safe injection site, finding that the plan would violate provisions of the Controlled Substances Act, colloquially known as the “crack house” statute.
In a 2-1 decision Tuesday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit has ruled—in an issue of first impression at the federal circuit level—that plans by the nonprofit Safehouse to open a facility with a so-called “consumption room,” where medical staff would oversee heroin injections, would violate federal law. The ruling reverses a decision by the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, which had OK’d the proposed project in Philadelphia.
