The US government plans to spend $5 million on a 'Safe Injection' study program conducted by New York University and Brown University. The program aims to provide users with needles for injecting fentanyl in a controlled and supervised environment.
The US government will study whether 'safe infection sites' for drug users can prevent overdoses, despite critics warning America is getting soft on drugs.
More than $5million will be given to New York University and Brown University to study two sites in NYC and Providence, Rhode Island.
Around 1,000 current drug users will be enrolled with the aim of studying the sites' cost and potential savings for healthcare and criminal justice systems.
Volunteers will be given the tools they need to inject drugs like fentanyl and heroin, including clean needles, and will be supervised by medical experts.
Safe injection sites — which offer drug paraphernalia to users no questions asked — first began cropping up across the US ...