On March 27th, city officials held a meeting at Congreso de Latinos Unidos on North American Street in the Kensington area of Philadelphia. The meeting was called to discuss the proposed legal safe injection sites.
About 1,200 lives were lost in 2017 due to opioid overdoses. The sites will be supervised areas where opioid users can use clean needles with medical workers standing by in case of an overdose.
The meeting on Tuesday brought the community together to teach residents ways to deal with a person who has overdosed. Attendees were given safe injection kits to use when handling used needles and were also taught ways to dispose of them properly.
“Once they [the kits] are completely filled you can take them over to a Philadelphia prevention point,” Damaris Feliciano says. Feliciano is the Director of Community Relations and Strategic Initiatives for the City of Philadelphia and a supporter of safe injection sites.
The meeting later had an open floor for residents to ask questions and make comments on the officials plan for safe injection sites. One community member voiced that the safe injection points are coming to the area now due to the gentrification of the Kensington and Fishtown areas.
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