PHILADELPHIA (AP) - A Philadelphia nonprofit hoping to open a safe injection location with onsite overdose treatment is seeking a final judgement to make its operation legal and head off threats of punishment from the U.S. Attorney.
The nonprofit Safehouse filed a motion Monday asking U.S. District Judge Gerald McHugh to issue a declaratory judgement that would not prohibit the organization’s proposed overdose prevention model as a matter of law, WHYY reported.
U.S. Attorney William McSwain sued the organization in February to stop it from opening the safe injection site. McHugh was asked by the federal government to decide simply whether the so-called “crackhouse statute” written in the 1980s as part of the U.S. Controlled Substances Act would apply to Safehouse. McHugh determined the organization’s plans did not violate the statute because the Safehouse’s ultimate aim is to reduce drug use, not facilitate it.
Safehouse is seeking the declarative judgement because it wants legal authority to open as soon as possible, said Ronda Goldfein, who is on the Safehouse board and legal team. Goldfein also cited threats from McSwain as evidence that the case is deserving of declaratory judgement. citing preceding U.S. Supreme Court cases in which final judgments were issued in lieu of making a defendant ‘bet the farm’’ by trying out the action being deemed as a violation by the government.
In a letter issued days after the judge’s October ruling, McSwain wrote “the proponents of drug injection sites cannot make heroin use legal, nor can any court,” and threatened federal enforcement action if Safehouse attempted to open an injection site.
McSwain has vowed to appeal any rulings in the organization’s favor and will presumably do so in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit if McHugh grants Safehouse its request for a declaratory judgment. Goldfein said she hoped local law enforcement would not cooperate with the U.S. attorneys threat to crack down on clients using the site.
In 2018, there were 1,116 overdose deaths In Philadelphia. Though there is no official count for 2019 yet, based on the rate of overdoses throughout the year, health officials estimate the death toll will be about the same.
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