Hi, I'm Amy, calling from Colorado and I disabling that overdose and would have been alive if she would have had access to a supervised use site.

People see other people overdosing and they're afraid to call for help.

If there is a supervised use site, a lot of our friends and family would be alive. To me, this is the socially responsible thing that we absolutely have to do and it is not only social responsible, but it's absolutely the right thing to do.

More than a million Americans have died from a drug overdose since 1999. That includes the period between May 2020 and April 2021 when there were roughly 100,000 overdose deaths, the highest number ever recorded in a year.

Two months ago, New York City opened the nation's first sanctioned overdose prevention centers. These are sites where people can safely use drugs under the supervision of those trained to spot and reverse overdoses.

Supervised use centers are part of what's known as harm reduction. That's a set of strategies designed to minimize the negative effects of drug use.

Similar sites are now being considered in Seattle, Philadelphia and San Francisco. While the harm reduction model has been embraced by the Biden White House, they have an indoor supervised consumption sites.

So what exactly is harm reduction and what does it mean to create a safe drug consumption site? Well, discuss all that and more after the break.

I'm Jen White. You're listening to the one a podcast where we get to the heart of the story. Remember to join future conversations, download our one a Vox Pop app and leave us a voicemail.

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BetterHelp Therapist, Tessu Jo, knows that lockdown has been hard on us as humans. We as people are hardwired to connect with others, which is why this whole time is so difficult.

The connection that happens between people can be very powerful and how healing it can be to have a healthy relationship with someone.

To get matched with a counselor within 48 hours and save 10% go to betterhelp.com slash 1 a.

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We're discussing supervised drug consumption sites. Joining us from New York to tell us about it is Sam Rivera. He's the executive director of Unpoint NYC, the nonprofit that runs the two safe consumption sites. Sam, welcome to 1a.

Thank you so much. It's a pleasure to be here.

Also with us is Dr. Kimberly Sue. She's a professor of medicine at Yale University and she's the medical director of the National Harm Reduction Coalition. Dr. Sue, welcome to the program.

Hi, Jen and hi, Sam. Thanks for having this important conversation.

So Sam, walk me through what happens at these two safe consumption sites. What's your setup?

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