(WSVN) - City leaders in San Francisco say they are considering a controversial way to help heroin addicts: opening “safe injection” sites.
KTVU reports that the city is looking to create a task force to study whether a drug injection site should be opened, giving addicts a designated place to shoot up while also having access to counselors and health officers.
A drug-injection site has never been implemented in the U.S., but Board of Supervisors President London Breed said they are willing to look outside the box for solutions to the city’s drug problem.
“We need to look at whether or not we should try this because it could possibly help,” Breed said. “What we are doing is just not working.”
San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee said he does not want to enable addiction, but is warming up to the idea.
“If I have health experts on site, then it is not about free injections,” Lee said. “They are about reducing harm on a long term sustainable basis. That is what I am supportive of.”
The board of supervisors would have to approve the measure. If passed, the city could open a safe-injection site by the end of 2017.
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