Is providing a government-sanctioned place for people with drug addiction issues to shoot up a good idea? This is being debated this week in Augusta. The proposed bill titled, “An Act to Prevent Overdose Deaths,” seems laudable, but is this a really good idea once the details are shown to the light?
If this bill was to be voted into law, facilities could operate all over the State that would supply a place for people who were addicted to drugs a place where they could inject themselves with drugs. By law ,the facility would be required to have medical professionals on hand that would be available to make sure that the people using the facility were under a watchful eye.
The bill also specifies that the facility provide the supplies, minus the drugs of course, to shoot up. Needles, tourniquets even testing for diseases commonly associated with using dirty needles or sexually transmitted diseases would be provided. It also requires that the facility have on hand a supply of naloxone hydrochloride, otherwise known as Narcan, in case the users of the facility did not quite get the dosing correct.
Much of this bill is unbelievable but the part that makes me shake my head the most is the idea of a Tolerance Zone. A Tolerance Zone is defined in the bill as an area where, “A person may not be arrested, prosecuted or subject to a revocation of probation for a violation of Title 17-A, section 1107-A, 1108, 1111 or 1111-A if the grounds for the arrest, prosecution or probation revocation were obtained within 1/2 mile of the facility.”
What does this mean? What is Title 17-A? And what are those sections you ask? That title is part of the Maine Criminal Code dealing with drug offenses. Those sections deal with the possession and use of drugs like Cocaine, Heroin, Fentanyl, Meth, Crack, Hydrocodone and Hydromorphone. The sections also deal with the possession of Hypodermic needles and drug paraphernalia. Fentanyl? Heroin?
If this bill were to become law all of those drugs would be instantly legal within that ½ mile Tolerance Zone.
As a reference point imagine that a safe injection site was to be opened where the Joshua Chamberlain statue is on upper Maine Street. That Tolerance Zone where you are allowed to have any drug, essentially, in your possession and all of the tools to use those drugs would extend to nearly Frosty’s Donuts in one direction. The zone would also encompass most, if not all of Bowdoin College. It would include all of the Harriet Beecher Stowe School and nearly reach the front door of the new Furbush Elementary School. It would also encompass much of the North West neighborhood and Oak Street, Union Street, Cumberland Street. Parts of McKeen Street, Page Street, Potter Street and Weymouth Street would all be in the safe zone.
The Brunswick Police Department or any other law enforcement agency would be unable to enact our drug laws if someone was within that zone. A half mile seems like a small area until you look at it on a map.
In my work life, I have seen the effects of what a drug addiction can do to someone. I also understand that there are a great many people who are handcuffed by that addiction but so desperately what to finally kick their habit. What they go through is troubling in deed, however, providing a place to use these drugs without the fear of penalty is the wrong way to help those who are looking for help.
Treatment options exist for those who want help. Government should work with providers for expanded access to treatment instead of implicitly allowing an injection site to be a magnet for drug use.
One silver lining to the proposed bill is that a facility must have the approval of the municipality in which they want to operate. If history tells us anything in Brunswick the approval process to open a facility would be anywhere between two and ten years. That assumes that there is a zoning ordinance already set in place.
Jonathan Crimmins can be reached at j_crimmins@hotmail.com
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