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The governor of Rhode Island on Wednesday signed a bill to establish a safe consumption site pilot program where people could test and use currently illicit drugs in a medically supervised environment. It\u2019s the first state in the country to legalize the harm reduction centers.<\/p>\n
The legislation was approved by the House of Representatives last month<\/a>, when lawmakers also accepted a Senate companion version. Last week, the Senate, which had passed an earlier version of the bill<\/a> in February, approved changes and gave final approval, sending the proposal to Gov. Dan McKee (D)<\/a>.<\/p>\n The governor didn\u2019t issue a statement on the legislation, but his office noted in a press release that he signed it along with more than 20 other bills.<\/p>\n .@GovDanMcKee<\/a> has signed the 2-year pilot program for a supervised drug-injection center(s), aka harm reduction, into law<\/p>\n \u2014 Ian Donnis (@IanDon) July 7, 2021<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n Under the new law, individual municipalities will still need to authorize the facilities to operate in their jurisdictions during the two-year pilot program.<\/p>\n The bill was partly informed by recommendations from an overdose task force convened under former Gov. Gina Raimondo (D), and it also calls for the creation an advisory committee. That panel will be required to advise the state Department of Health on how to \u201cmaximize\u201d the benefits of the centers.<\/p>\n \u201cThe opioid epidemic has become a tremendous public health crisis, with overdoses of prescription and non-prescription opioids claiming a record number of lives,\u201d Rep. John Edwards (D), sponsor of the House\u00a0bill<\/a>, said in a press release when lawmakers sent it to the governor last week. \u201cNot only do harm reduction centers severely mitigate the chance of overdose, they are a gateway to treatment and rehabilitation of people with substance abuse disorder.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThese locations will be under the supervision of trained medical staff who can direct addicts toward substance use disorder treatment,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s a way to tackle this epidemic while saving lives in the process.\u201d<\/p>\n Senate Health and Human Services Chairman Joshua Miller, who sponsored his chamber\u2019s version of the\u00a0bill<\/a>, (D)\u00a0said<\/a>, that \u201cif we are truly going to rein in the drug overdose epidemic, we must recognize drug addiction as the health problem it is, rather than as merely a crime.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cPeople who are addicted need help and protection from the most dangerous possibilities of addiction,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u2014 Advocates cheered the historic achievement.<\/p>\n \u201cToday\u2019s victory in Rhode Island gives us hope that there are policymakers that are willing to actually lead and do what needs to be done to save lives in the face of one of the worst public health crises of our time,\u201d Lindsay LaSalle, managing director of policy for the Drug Policy Alliance, said in a press release. \u201cWith at least 92,000 of our friends and family members lost to overdose in 2020 alone, we simply cannot wait any longer\u2026 There are mountains of evidence, from years and years of experience in other countries, to show that these centers save lives, increase the likelihood of a person entering treatment, and provide people access to other vitally important health resources.\u201d<\/p>\n Haley McKee, co-chair of the Substance Use Policy Education & Recovery PAC, said she hopes the move will \u201cset a precedent for other states to follow suit, with Rhode Island being the leader.\u201d<\/p>\n The Rhode Island Senate in 2019\u00a0passed a similar bill to create a harm reduction center pilot program<\/a>, but it did not advance through the House. And last year, a Massachusetts legislative committee approved a bill that would legalize safe injection sites<\/a>, but it did not become enacted.<\/p>\n A similar harm reduction\u00a0bill<\/a>\u00a0in California, sponsored by Sen. Scott Wiener (D), was\u00a0approved in the state Senate in April<\/a>, but further action has been delayed until the beginning of 2022.<\/p>\n The senator said<\/a> in a press release that he\u2019s \u201cextremely disappointed\u201d about the delay. However, it\u2019s a two-year legislative session in California and so the current bill is still alive.<\/p>\n \u201cI do believe we will pass SB 57 next year,\u201d Wiener said. \u201cIt passed the Senate this year, and the Assembly Health Committee has repeatedly passed the bill over the past five years. I\u2019m optimistic that the Committee will, indeed, pass the bill in January.\u201d<\/p>\n Former Gov. Jerry Brown (D) vetoed<\/a>\u00a0legislation in 2018 that would\u2019ve established a safe injection site pilot program.<\/p>\n This year, a federal court\u00a0blocked<\/a> a Philadelphia nonprofit from opening a harm reduction center but its backers are pursuing an appeal\u2014and it\u2019s not clear if the Justice Department under President Joe Biden will take a different stance on the issue than the Trump administration did.<\/p>\n In 2018, a congressional subcommittee approved legislation to specifically prohibit Washington D.C. from using local tax dollars\u00a0to help open safe consumption facilities<\/a>. But that provision was not enacted and has not been reintroduced since.<\/p>\n A 2020 study found that people \u201cwho reported using supervised injection facilities on an at least weekly basis\u00a0had a reduced risk of dying<\/a>\u00a0compared to those who reported less than weekly or no use of this health service.\u201d<\/p>\n Meanwhile in Rhode Island, the House Finance Committee last week heard testimony on one of three proposals introduced this session to legalize marijuana for adult use<\/a>. Legislative leaders and the governor\u2019s office have indicated they\u2019d like to reconcile the differences between those measures and potentially return to vote on a compromise bill later this year.<\/p>\n The Senate\u00a0already passed a separate cannabis legalization measure<\/a> last month.<\/p>\n FBI Loosens Marijuana Employment Policy For Would-Be Agents<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n Photo courtesy of Jernej Furman<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n The post Rhode Island Governor Signs Historic Bill Legalizing Safe Consumption Sites For Illicit Drugs<\/a> appeared first on Marijuana Moment<\/a>.<\/p>\n
The governor of Rhode Island on Wednesday signed a bill to establish a safe consumption site pilot program where people could test and use currently illicit drugs in a medically supervised environment. It\u2019s the first state in the country to legalize the harm reduction centers. The legislation was approved byContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":458,"featured_media":48705,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[18,81],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48704"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/458"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48704"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48704\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":48706,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48704\/revisions\/48706"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48705"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48704"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48704"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48704"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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\nRead More: Rhode Island Governor Signs Historic Bill Legalizing Safe Consumption Sites For Illicit Drugs<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"