This is the Cato Daily Podcast for Wednesday, July 21st, 2021.

I'm Caleb Brown.

Rhode Island is the first state to take an important if ultimately symbolic step toward reducing harms associated with

opiate addiction. The state has legalized safe consumption sites for people addicted

to opioids. Cato's Jeff Singer details why Rhode Island won't be the last state to do this and why it's important

for states to bring addicted people out of the shadows.

In the interest of harm reduction, which we should all be seeking in our lives on a consistent basis.

What is the best case to be made for safe injection sites for what we can just refer to as hard drugs.

Okay, well, safe injection sites, also known as safe consumption sites, and some people call them

overdose prevention centers. They've actually been around since the late 1980s.

They've, so we got a good track record. They've been in existence in about 120 locations in 66

major cities in Europe, Canada, Australia. The idea is these are people who are intravenous drug users.

An advantage that they have over needle exchange programs which gives them clean needles and syringes

and reduces the spread of HIV and hepatitis and other infectious diseases, is these people,

many of these people are actually down and out living on the streets.

This brings them inside where they're given a clean needle and

syringe and a staff member is standing close by with the overdose antidote in the lock zone. So in case they overdose, they could rescue them.

They're giving testing, given testing equipment so they could check to make sure

that whatever they have, it doesn't have unknown things in it that they didn't expect like fentanyl which is

cause an overdose. They're offered testing for HIV and hepatitis. They're given a

place to shower and clean up and stay for a while after they inject to it's called

chill rooms where they could so they don't just walk out with the after the immediate effects

...