A Denver law to OK opioid use sites is in the works. Here’s what has to happen to legalize the “brid
A law being proposed by Councilman Albus Brooks would legalize supervised injection centers, where people addicted to opioids could use the drugs en route to recovery — or at least in a safer environment that deters fatal overdoses and the spread of chronic diseases like hepatitis C and HIV.
It’s a policy created in response to an epidemic of heroin, fentanyl, methamphetamine and other drugs that killed 201 people in Denver in 2017 and 64,000 across the country in 2016. A big reason for those deaths is a dearth of immediate health interventions, says Lisa Raville, who heads Denver’s Harm Reduction Action Center in Capitol Hill.
