2020整年创纪录地有2千多人因吸毒过量而死，2021年又创新高，仅仅前3个月，就有596人因为吸毒过量而死。为了拯救这些无辜的生命，纽约市长决定试行注射点。

1. 正方：纽约市长Bill de Blasio声明：Overdose prevention centers是一个安全有效的方法。这也是为了保护咱这个城市最脆弱的群体；

2. Blasio市长也知道这事儿有争议，所以他是书面声明的，没在早间新闻发布会发布，以免记者问这问那。

3. 这两个注射点由两个城市资金资助的非盈利机构New York Harm Reduction Educators in East Harlem and the Washington Heights Corner Project运营  ---- 啊，又是神奇的非营利机构.......

4. 为啥选这两个地儿呢？近几个月Washington Heights总有瘾君子在街上地铁里注射。近几年来，总有瘾君子在East Harlem聚集。

5. 反方：众议员Nicole Malliotakis公开表示反对，因为美国有一条 “crackhouse statute,”法令， 内容是任何场所不得被用于暂时或永久生产、销售或使用任何管控物质。违者可处以20年以下监禁及2百万以下罚款。且1月份联邦法庭有个决议阻止了一个费城注射点的建立。Malliotakis已经给司法部长写信，希望部长把这两个注射点干掉。

6. 正方助攻：城市卫生专员Dave Chokshi认为注射点显示了同情与怜悯。30年的科学研究表明，注射点将拯救生命、预防艾滋病/肝炎。还能略为改善犯罪情况。

Hard-drug users will now be able to inject heroin and other drugs at two so-called safe injection sites in upper Manhattan, making New York City the first in the nation to officially sanction such services.

Mayor de Blasio and top city health officials announced the creation of the injection sites Tuesday as the city struggles to deal with a growing crisis of overdose deaths.

In the first three months of 2021 alone, 596 people died of overdoses in the city — the highest rate of such drug-related deaths in a three-month span since the city began keeping such data in 2000. In 2020, more than 2,000 people died from overdoses throughout the five boroughs — another all-time high, according to city records.

“After exhaustive study, we know the right path forward to protect the most vulnerable people in our city. And we will not hesitate to take it,” de Blasio said in a written statement. “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.”

The mayor’s controversial announcement was made through a press release — not at one of his morning news briefings, which would have allowed reporters to pose questions directly to him.

The city-sanctioned shooting galleries will be located in East Harlem and Washington Heights.

The sites will be run by two nonprofits — New York Harm Reduction Educators in East Harlem and the Washington Heights Corner Project — a Health Department spokesman said. Both of the nonprofits are funded by the city, but the city will not staff or operate the facilities, the spokesman said.

The aim is to prevent drug users from overdosing by providing them with a safe place to get their fix. The operators of the facilities will offer clean needles and addiction treatment options, as well as naloxone, which is used to reverse overdoses. The facilities already provide tests to detect fentanyl, a powerful narcotic often used to cut other drugs like heroin and OxyContin.

Overdoses have become prevalent nationwide in recent years due to the presence of fentanyl. Intravenous drug use also appears to be on the rise.

In recent months in Washington Heights, it has become common to see addicts shooting up on the street and in subway stairwells. And for years, East Harlem has served as a gathering place for addicts, owing in part to the concentration of methadone clinics in the neighborhood.

The news of the new injection sites, which was first reported in The New York Times, prompted an almost immediate backlash from the conservative side of the political spectrum.

Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-S.I., Brooklyn) pointed to already existing law as her central argument against the new city policy.

A federal law, known broadly as the “crackhouse statute,” prohibits using or opening “any place, whether permanently or temporarily, for the purpose of manufacturing, distributing or using any controlled substance.”

Running afoul of the prohibition can carry with it a penalty of up to 20 years in prison and fines up to $2 million.

In a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland, Malliotakis called the new policy “unlawful” and urged him to “close these sites and prevent this dangerous plan from expanding.”

“Experiments with ‘safe’ injection sites have resulted in a concentration of addicts in neighborhoods where these sites are established, deteriorating quality of life and leading to increases in homelessness, theft and violence,” she wrote, referring to similar policies enacted in foreign countries. “Subjecting Americans to such an experiment here in the United States is not only illegal, but cruel.”

City Health Commissioner Dave Chokshi maintained that the opposite is true and that offering the sites represents an act of compassion.

“We have over 30 years of research,” he said. “We have a solid base of science that tells us that overdose prevention centers work. They save lives. They prevent HIV and hepatitis. They decrease public drug use and reduce syringe litter, especially over time. And they have neutral-to-improved effects on crime.”

On the legal front, though, Malliotakis cited a January 2021 federal court decision effectively blocking an injection site in Philadelphia.

“As the highest-ranking law enforcement official in the country,” she wrote to Garland, “it is imperative that you enforce this legal precedent.”