File #: Res 0611-2023    Version: * Name: Amending the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986 to allow for the operation of legitimate supervised consumption sites around the country.
Type: Resolution Status: Filed (End of Session)
Committee: Committee on Mental Health, Disabilities and Addiction
On agenda: 5/11/2023
Enactment date: Law number:
Title: Resolution calling upon the United States Congress to pass, and the President to sign, legislation amending the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986 to allow for the operation of legitimate supervised consumption sites around the country.
Sponsors: Linda Lee, Lincoln Restler, Kristin Richardson Jordan, Shahana K. Hanif, Diana I. Ayala
Council Member Sponsors: 5
Attachments: 1. Res. No. 611, 2. May 11, 2023 - Stated Meeting Agenda, 3. Hearing Transcript - Stated Meeting 5-11-23, 4. Minutes of the Stated Meeting - May 11, 2023

Res. No. 611

 

Resolution calling upon the United States Congress to pass, and the President to sign, legislation amending the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986 to allow for the operation of legitimate supervised consumption sites around the country.

 

By Council Members Lee, Restler, Richardson Jordan, Hanif and Ayala

 

Whereas, drug overdoses are a major public health crisis in New York City and across the United States, resulting in 2,668 deaths in New York City and over 106,000 throughout the country in 2021; and

Whereas, opioid abuse and overdoses are estimated to cost the American economy more than a trillion dollars every year; and

Whereas, public health experts have estimated opioid use disorder costs New York State approximately three percent of its GDP; and

Whereas, decades of punitive approaches to drug abuse have not meaningfully reduced the phenomenon or compensated for its harms; and

Whereas, the city, state, and federal governments have an abiding interest in reducing the harms caused by drug abuse and its attendant cost to public health and safety; and

Whereas, supervised consumption sites provide a model for how to reduce likelihood of overdose and connect chronic drug users to health care, counseling and other services; and

Whereas, on November 30, 2021, New York City opened two overdose prevention centers, the first government run supervised consumption sites in the country; and

Whereas, these sites allowed staff to mitigate hundreds of potential overdoses; and

Whereas, more than half of the patrons of these sites utilized additional services; and

Whereas, supervised consumption sites exist in a legal grey area thanks to a portion of the federal Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986, known as the “crack house statutes,” which attached felony liability to those who maintain a premises for the sake of using controlled substances; and

Whereas, the possibility of criminal prosecution discourages public health authorities and nonprofit providers from operating supervised consumption sites despite promising data on their efficacy at reducing overdose deaths and connecting habitual drug users to services; now, therefore, be it

Resolved, That the Council of the City of New York calls upon the United States Congress to pass, and the President to sign, legislation amending the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986 to allow for the operation of legitimate supervised consumption sites around the country

 

 

LS #12532

3/15/2023

AY