How Overdose Prevention Centers Became Political Scapegoats
published on October 14, 2024 by Vida Foubister in Think Global Health
Late in 2021, San Francisco Mayor London Breed declared a state of emergency in the city’s Tenderloin district to enable a quick and coordinated response to the opioid overdose crisis—driven mostly by fentanyl—that was killing more than two people a day.
The Tenderloin Center opened in January 2022 and began offering behavioral health care, medical services, and other resources to people using drugs. Within a week, its scope covertly expanded to include an overdose prevention site (OPS). Also referred to as overdose prevention centers, supervised injection sites (SIS), and supervised consumption sites (SCS), these facilities give people a safe place to use drugs while they are monitored by staff trained to respond to an overdose.
“What was quickly realized was that there was nowhere to link people to, that evidence-based drug treatment slots were mostly at capacity,” explained Alex Kral, an epidemiologist at the nonprofit research institute RTI International who led an independent evaluation of San Francisco’s OPS. People were found using drugs in the Tenderloin Center bathrooms; the goal was to reduce their risk of harm as they waited for necessary care and services…
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