HARTFORD, Conn. — The opioid epidemic continues to take lives every single day. In Connecticut alone, there were more than 1,500 drug overdose deaths in 2021.
In the search for answers on how to try to stop this, advocates of overdose prevention centers want their voices heard.
"An overdose prevention center is just in line with how we treat every other illness in America. It’s basically just playing catch up to the accepted standard for treating any other type of patients," said Dr. Daniel Kerekes, a surgery resident at Yale New Haven Hospital.
He is calling for Connecticut to take the lead on opening these centers.
The concept is that they provide a clean, safe space for people to use drugs, with staff on hand ready to step in to prevent an overdose.
Right now, they only exist in the U.S. in New York City but have existed in other countries for years.
"There are over 100 of these worldwide they’ve been operational since 1986 and there have been zero deaths due to opioid overdose in one of these enters," Kerekes said. "It decreases overdoses, it decreases the number of regional ambulance calls, it decreases the number of infections."
What does exist in our state are harm reduction facilities and syringe service programs, like "The Drop" in Hartford run by the Connecticut Harm Reduction Alliance.
"Naloxone, education around fentanyl test strips, and it’s a non-judgmental space," said Mark Jenkins, executive director.
Advocates said some of the concerns they often hear are that overdose prevention centers would encourage drug use or that they would bring crime to an area.
"There have been several studies on the topic and the answer is no. There is no increase in public nuisance and there’s no increase in crime in an area before versus after an overdose prevention center opens," Kerekes said.
Advocates said other approaches have not worked and it may be time to try something new.
"These are public health responses. The most effective public health responses are not favorable," Jenkins said. "Right now we’re failing. We’re failing and it’s primarily because of fear. We have to think outside the box," he said.
There is no proposal to bring these centers to Connecticut. The state legislature's public health committee did hold an informational hearing on them last month.
Gaby Molina is a reporter and anchor at FOX61 News. She can be reached at mmolina@fox61.com. Follow her on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
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