From Doug McVay, Editor, www.drugwarfacts.org
I was checking twitter at lunch and saw news about today’s decision in the Safehouse trial in Philadelphia. Safehouse is the nonprofit that’s working to set up a supervised consumption site in the Philadelphia area. The US Justice Department filed suit to stop them, alleging that a supervised consumption site would violate the federal “crackhouse” law. The judge’s ruling denying that motion is not the final word. The government is expected to appeal but this is still good news that’s expected to give a boost to efforts in other municipalities — such as San Francisco, Seattle/King County, Portland/Multnomah County (my home) — that are considering supervised consumption sites.
This is from today’s ruling:
“This 2nd day of October, 2019, upon consideration of the Government’s Motion for Judgment on the Pleadings (ECF No. 47), and Safehouse’s response, it is hereby ORDERED that the Motion is DENIED. Accepting the facts in the pleadings as true, as required under Rule 12 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, 21 U.S.C. § 856 (a)(2) would not prohibit Safehouse from establishing and operating an overdose prevention facility that provides medically supervised consumption services.”
Information about Safehouse and the effort to set up a supervised consumption site in Philadelphia can be found at
Drug War Facts section on Supervised Consumption Sites:
Philadelphia Inquirer story about today’s ruling:
