Safer consumption sites critical to combat opioid crisis

Rural New Yorkers are dying from preventable overdoses. Money poured into treatment and law enforcement has had little impact. In the face of an overdose crisis that is killing more New Yorkers than HIV/AIDS at its peak, elected officials throughout New York must take prompt, bold action to save the lives of their constituents. As such, I applaud New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio in joining Ithaca's Mayor Svante Myrick in calling for lifesaving overdose prevention programs.

Decades of research across three continents demonstrate that these facilities save lives, reduce public syringe disposal and public drug use, facilitate entry to treatment, and do not increase crime.

As executive director of an upstate nonprofit that operates three syringe exchange programs, I know that we cannot limit overdose prevention programs to New York City. It took a decade from the state authorizing syringe exchanges in 1992 until the opening of Ithaca's syringe exchange in 2002. That delay allowed many people to become infected with HIV unnecessarily and has cost us dearly in both dollars and avoidable human suffering.

Furthermore, dedicated investment in urban parts of the state has contributed to the lack of health infrastructure available to handle the current overdose crisis. That delay from almost 20 years ago continues to kill people today. In Tompkins County, the fatal overdose rate has increased by 1,000 percent over the past decade; 2017 was the deadliest year on record. In fact, the overdose rates in western and central New York and the Southern Tier all surpass that in New York City. Since 2006, rural New York counties have experienced a 295 percent increase in opioid overdose deaths. Suburban counties experienced a 303 percent increase in the opioid overdose death rate, and a 1,158 percent increase in heroin-related deaths.

In 2014, Myrick convened a Municipal Drug Policy Committee to develop a comprehensive city-wide strategy. The committee consisted of diverse stakeholders, including treatment and harm-reduction providers, police, people who use drugs and those who are in recovery, and business owners, all working toward the shared goal of saving lives and reducing harms associated with drug use and the failed war on drugs. This group produced The Ithaca Plan, a report outlining more than 20 evidence-based recommendations, including safer consumption spaces.

Recently, Bloomberg Philanthropies selected Ithaca as one of 35 "Champion Cities" from a field of 350 applicants in its Mayors Challenge. The contest recognized municipal policy proposals for innovation, high impact potential, and scalability to other jurisdictions.

However, until Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Health Commissioner Howard Zucker take action to support prevention programs, essential elements of the Ithaca Plan as well as de Blasio's call to action will remain proposals only. This means the people I serve will keep dying.

Nearly 100 safer consumption spaces exist around the world. Decades of research demonstrate that they reduce overdose deaths, HIV and viral hepatitis infections, and public disorder, while increasing access to drug treatment and other health care.

Any serious plan to reverse the overdose crisis must include overdose prevention programs and must site them in both urban and suburban/rural areas. Start with Ithaca. Give us the green light to save the lives of the people we serve. The New Yorkers at risk of dying from preventable overdoses today do not have time for proposals left unimplemented.

New York stands at a historic crossroads: Do we take action to prevent these deaths or allow them to continue? I trust Cuomo and Zucker will join us to end overdoses statewide. We can't wait another decade this time. Human life is precious, upstate and downstate alike.