Title
Calling on Safehouse, the United States Department of Justice, and the Mayor to halt implementation of supervised injection sites in the City of Philadelphia, to involve community groups and other branches of city government with differing views to participate in settlement negotiations, and to enforce the previous holding from the Third Circuit Court of Appeals.
Body
WHEREAS, Safehouse is a non-profit organization which seeks to establish multiple safe-injection sites in the City of Philadelphia; and
WHEREAS, safe-injection sites are unprecedented facilities in the City of Philadelphia and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and remains uncontemplated in the City Code and Pennsylvania Statutes; and
WHERAS, Safehouse has tried to establish safe-injection sites in the past, without input from both the Communities they seek to serve and from this Body; and
WHEREAS, This Body has condemned Safehouse's previous attempt to open such sites without such input in Resolution No. 200195; and
WHEREAS, The Third Circuit Court of Appeals has held safe-injection sites to be a violation of 21 U.S.C ? 856(a)(2), which makes it illegal to manage or control a property and then knowingly open it to visitors for the purpose of using a controlled substance; and
WHEREAS, The United States Department of Justice and Safehouse have begun negotiations in contravention of this ruling from the Third Circuit to open multiple safe injection sites in the City of Philadelphia; and
WHEREAS, Members of this Body attempted to testify in anticipation of these settlement negotiations, but were barred from sharing their opinions by the Department of Justice; and
WHEREAS, This issue is multilayered and many stakeholders, community groups, and addiction treatment professionals feel as though they are being left out of discussions about a safe-injection site; and
WHEREAS, The impact of harm reduction on safe-injection sites have not been fully studied and there is no evidence that the comm...
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