New York City has become the first U.S. city to open government sanctioned supervised injection facilities, as San Francisco officials continue the process of doing the same.
The two facilities, located in East Harlem and Washington Heights, were already operating as needle exchange sites and began allowing on-site consumption November 30, according to an announcement from New York Harm Reduction Educators, one of two nonprofits that merged to form a new organization dubbed OnPoint NYC.
During their first days in operation, staff at the two sites reversed several drug overdoses. The new sites would show other cities that "after decades of failure, a smarter approach is possible," outgoing NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio said in a statement.