After Philadelphia saw 950 people die from overdoses through September of last year, the city wants to green light safe-injection sites.
Those are places where you can BYOD — bring your own drugs — and shoot up with medics nearby.
Advocates say safe-injection sites save lives by preventing overdoses. But, in my view, “safe” and “injection” are like oil and water. The two words just don’t mix.
Maybe safe-injection sites make sense in the world of lab coats and data samples. Maybe they make sense to my fellow journalists who consider themselves addiction experts after talking to some addicts in the ‘hood. But you’ve never gone hungry just to get that next high if you’ve never lived on streets where life is worth less than death.
Don’t tell me about safe injection.
Because I know from personal experience what it’s like to live a life for drugs. I did it for a few years in my 20s — and when God finally delivered me from crack cocaine, it wasn’t because someone opened a personal drug house just for me. I stopped because the pain of continuing was worse than the pain of letting go.
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Solomon Jones is an Essence bestselling author and award-winning columnist. He is the creator and editor of Solomonjones.com and host of Your Voice weekdays from 10 to Noon on Praise 107.9 FM radio. Click here to learn more about Solomon.
