On Wednesday, April 3rd, Federal District Judge Gerald McHugh rejected the latest attempt by the organization Safehouse to open a supervised substance injection site for Philadelphia’s population struggling with opioid addiction, and surviving on the brink of death, with a higher presence in Kensington and surrounding areas.
The judge’s decision has dealt a significant setback to Safehouse, which seeks authorization to open a center similar to the two it operates in New York. Their latest argument was based on “the constitutional right to exercise our religious conviction, which compels us to save every human life at any cost.”
Simultaneously, the rejection statement has been met with relief by residents of the area, who mostly oppose the establishment of a supervised consumption center. The fear that the population of people suffering from addiction disorder, drug dealers will increase on the neighborhood streets is palpable, as Kensington is internationally known as an open-air opioid market.
The dilemma is complex and difficult to solve. On the one hand, it is understandable that parents fear seeing a constant stream of people with a substance abuse disorder in front of their homes, filling their streets with smells, debris, syringes, and makeshift shelters. On the other hand, it is also possible to understand Safehouse’s good intention to offer a temporary alternative that protects addicts from a potentially fatal overdose, while a more profound solution to this scourge is found.
However, the city, the community, and non-governmental organizations are intervening jointly to attack the neglect that Kensington was in and to find solutions that prevent the dramatic trail of deaths, both from overdoses and violence, largely due to family disintegration.
According to figures from the National Center for Disease Control and Prevention, between 1999 and 2021, some 650,000 people died in the country from opioid overdoses; while in Philadelphia, there have been around 6,500 deaths from the same cause since 2019. These figures speak of a drama that cannot be ignored any longer or assumed with negligence or lightness and that requires the constant commitment of all those involved.
