Providence is now home to the country’s first state-sanctioned facility for people to use illegal drugs under medical supervision. The nonprofit Project Weber/RENEW on Tuesday held a ribbon-cutting to celebrate a years-long effort to bring an overdose prevention center to the Ocean State.
Advocates hope that the new facility will lead to fewer overdose-related deaths in Rhode Island, and more people getting connected with drug treatment. Last year, more than 400 people in Rhode Island died of an overdose.
“It’s just a place to keep people safe, prevent deaths, and connect people to services,” said Dennis Bailer, the overdose prevention program director at the organization.
Overdose prevention centers (OPCs) go by many names: harm-reduction centers, supervised-injection sites, and more, but the overarching approach remains the same. These spaces, which operate under medical supervision, provide a way for people who use drugs to avoid doing so alone, with the goal of preventing accidental overdose.
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