January 5, 2023
OVERDOSE PREVENTION CENTERS IN FLUX:
Last month, the Hochul administration rejected a recommendation that settlement money from opioid-related lawsuits be used to support overdose prevention centers, citing federal and state laws that prohibit their operation.
Now OnPoint NYC, the nonprofit that operates the city’s two overdose prevention centers (OPC), says its funding will run out in February, the Wall Street Journal reported. The two supervised drug-use sites in East Harlem and Washington Heights run on about $1.4 million a year in private funding from donors including the New York Health Foundation.
Mariah McGough, a spokeswoman for the advocacy organization VOCAL-NY, said Gov. Kathy Hochul should support the centers’ continued operation by authorizing them through an executive action. The organization cited data that OnPoint’s two centers have reversed nearly 700 overdoses since they opened in November 2021.
This morning, NPR News carried a story from Caroline Lewis in NYC regarding the OnPoint OPC in NYC. If you would like to listen to the story that discusses the work of OnPoint, and the challenges OnPoint and other OPCs currently face, here’s a link to the radio spot (4 minutes):