1、CRS Legal Sidebar Prepared for Members and Committees of Congress Legal SidebarLegal Sidebari i Reducing Harm or Enabling Substance Abuse? Supervised Injection Sites Under Federal Drug Law November 22, 2019 To mitigate the effects of the opioid crisis in Philadelphia, in 2018 a nonprofit called Safe
2、house announced plans to open a supervised injection site where illicit drug users could consume opioids under the supervision of trained staff, receive medical intervention in case of an overdose, and access services including addiction treatment. The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) sued Safehouse
3、 to block the proposed facility, arguing that the supervised injection site would violate a provision of the Controlled Substances Act (CSA) known as the “crack house statute,” which prohibits making facilities available “for the purpose of unlawfully . . . using a controlled substance.” On October
4、2, 2019, a district court judge in United States v. Safehouse ruled that the planned facility would not violate the CSA because the provision in question does not apply to supervised injection sites such as Safehouse. The district courts ruling could have significant implications for supervised inje