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The Justice Department is suing to stop a Philadelphia group from opening what some public health experts and mayors consider the next front in fighting the opioid epidemic: a place where people who inject fentanyl and other illicit drugs can do so under medical supervision. The nonprofit group, Safehouse, was formed last year to house the country’s first so-called safe injection site in Philadelphia, which has one of the nation’s highest rates of overdose deaths. Safehouse had been planning to open the site as soon as next month, and a law firm has been representing it pro bono in anticipation of a crackdown by the Trump administration. (Goodnough, 2/6)

The lawsuit pits U.S. Attorney William McSwain’s stance on safe injection sites against those of Philadelphia’s mayor, district attorney and a former Pennsylvania governor. McSwain believes supporters should try to change the laws, not break them. “Normalizing the use of deadly drugs like heroin and fentanyl is not the answer to solving the epidemic,” McSwain said at a Wednesday news conference, while protesters gathered outside his office on Independence Mall. They said thousands of people could die of overdoses in Philadelphia in the time it might take to change the law. (Dale, 2/6)

Ronda Goldfein, vice president of Safehouse, said the government’s lawsuit wouldn’t stop the nonprofit from continuing its efforts to open an injection site. It doesn’t have funding or a location. She also said the suit could help lift legal uncertainty nationally surrounding safe-injection sites. “This is one of the issues that needs to be resolved before we can move forward with this initiative, both in Philadelphia and with our harm-reduction colleagues across the country,” she said. (Kamp, 2/6)

According to the suit, a supervised injection site would violate a section added to the Controlled Substances Act in the 1980s during the height of the crack epidemic. That section of law was written to close crack houses, but legal experts say it has been used more expansively in the past. McSwain's comments affirm remarks made last year by Rod Rosenstein, deputy U.S. attorney general, who said in an interview with WHYY that swift and aggressive action would follow the opening of a supervised injection site. Such facilities operate in Canada and Europe, but none exist in the United States. That has not stopped other cities like New York, Denver and Seattle from publicly debating similar proposals. (Allyn, 2/6)

Advocates say that such drug sanctuaries could be an important tool in the fight to stem the opioid epidemic. Philadelphia, which has one of the nation’s most active heroin markets, has seen a high toll from opioid abuse. Supervised injection facilities exist in other countries, and advocates contend they save lives by allowing drug users to use in sanitary conditions where they are monitored for signs of overdose rather than overdosing on the street, where help might not be available. Advocates also believe safe injection sites curb the spread of HIV and hepatitis C by limiting needle sharing. (Zezima, 2/6)