SEATTLE — Editor’s note: A KIRO 7 Facebook post indicated that the injection site would be opening now. That is incorrect, we apologize for the error.
The nonprofit group hoping to bring a safe-heroin injection site to the back of the University Temple United Methodist Church says they sooner it's open, the more lives they'll save.
"If I had my way it would have opened last week," said Shilo Jama, who leads the People's Harm Reduction Alliance, which already hands out clean needles, and encourages drug treatment at the church.
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Jama said they intend to skip the process of a public vote, and hope to open a site where a medical staff would supervise heroin use and encourage counseling and treatment on the spot.
"Yes we are very impatient, and I think it's heartbreaking because people are dying and these are preventable deaths," Jama said.
Among the people opposing the idea, Jelair Box leads the drug solutions task force with the group "Speak Out Seattle -- which strongly encourages more availability of drug treatment. "I feel as if our citizen process is being truncated in this situation here," Box said.
Box says she did her own investigation, and while asking questions at the church, she noticed a day care very near the proposed safe injection site.
Box also went to Vancouver, B.C. and became convinced their safe injection concepts would be a "terrible idea" in Seattle.
"There are unintended consequences of opening drug consumption sites, that I don't think people are thinking about," Box said. "It does attract people to the neighborhood, and it does affect local business."
Jama argues that his organization's safe site proposal is the surest way to directly encourage drug treatment, and the organization may not wait for the public vote to legalize or ban them. He dsof the Alliance is waiting for official clearance from King County Health, before the site can open.
"I think this is a very strategic and smart move if we want to end the heroin crisis in King County," he said.
Cox Media Group
