NJ’s newest terrible idea — safe sites for drug addicts to inject (Opinion)

If you haven't heard enough ridiculous ideas, maybe this will help you meet your quota. In Trenton, lawmakers are considering allowing the NJ Department of Health to open 'safe-injection sites,' four of them, where drug addicts can go, shoot heroin, and not be arrested.

The idea is instead of shooting up alone where if they overdose there's no one to help them, they would bring the drugs they already have and shoot up in front of medical personnel who stay and watch them and can provide aid if they o.d. These places would even provide clean syringes and disinfecting wipes in order to slow the spread of hep C or HIV. Narcan would be on hand to revive anyone who went too far.

They say they'll even provide coffee and a snack to make the addict feel at home and try to forge a relationship with them. Gain their trust and talk to them about counseling is the idea here.

Okay. Just. Stop. It.

If Assemblywoman Vaineri Huttle and Sens. Vitale and Greenstein want to sit around and let people risk their lives by shooting up heroin (and enjoy coffee before and after) then have them over to their living rooms and do it. Don't use the NJ Department of Health. You're giving tacit approval to an illegal and destructive act. I understand people who are addicted need help and hospitals not prosecutors and prison, but this is going too far.

If these lawmakers support a government agency setting up places for heroin addicts to inject then they'd better damn well change the laws about parents hosting underage drinking parties. It's the government version of the same thing. I don't support either.

What's the liability the first time a heroin addict overdoses in front of medical personnel and cannot be revived? The same government has laws allowing strict liability for a drug-induced death where a friend can go to prison for just sharing his heroin. Yet you're going to have nurses hand you a clean needle in a room that you provided to shoot up and you're not liable for anything?

Give me a break. This is one of the worst ideas I've heard in a long time. Which probably means Gov. Murphy would sign it in a heartbeat.

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