Supervised Drug Consumption Sites and the bill to legalize them in Massachusetts, explained.

Supervised drug consumption sites (SCS) are designated facilities where people can choose to go to use fentanyl or other opioids or stimulants like crack cocaine or methamphetamine, done under the watch of staff or volunteers who may intervene upon signs of oversedation or potential overdose. A bill to legalize these facilities in Boston and throughout Massachusetts—which has the support of Mayor Wu, the MA Department of Public Health and a vocal lobby of advocates/activists—recently passed out of a state legislative committee and could possibly be debated or voted upon this spring and summer.

Worldwide there are some 200 SCSs, the largest number of which, 40, are in Canada. There are no SCSs anywhere in the US except for two sites in NYC; efforts to establish sites in Seattle, San Francisco, Philadelphia and elsewhere have collapsed under community opposition. The very largest sites host a few hundred drug uses a day and can accommodate up to a dozen or so users at once; most sites are much smaller. A user purchases the drugs from a dealer somewhere outside the SCS, takes them inside to inject or smoke, then, after fifteen to thirty minutes or so, walks back out the door into the neighborhood. Under the proposed law, drugs would still be illegal, but police would stand down enforcement with respect to the sites and, supporters hope, the US Attorney’s Office would look the other way despite the fact federal law prohibits drug co.

The Massachusetts legislation doesn’t mention where drug consumption sites would be located, but—if legalized—a location in or near the South End / Mass and Cass seems a near-certain target for an SCS. Users are not generally willing to travel more than a handful blocks to make use of an SCS and, therefore, sites are normally located in areas where street homelessness, addiction and mental health services and shelters are concentrated and lots of addicted people are to be found. (For this reason, implementation of an SCS is the opposite of a decentralization strategy.) Even in places SCSs exist, the overwhelming majority of drug use will continue to occur on the street, or in homes and other non-SCS settings, due to the sheer volume of drug use, drug users not prioritizing their use and other factors.

Note: “Overdose Prevention Center,” “Safe Injection Facility,” “Supervised Inhalation Site,” etc. are other names for the same concept.