Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel joined a coalition of 11 attorneys general in a friend-of-the-court brief urging the Supreme Court to hear a case supporting states’ rights to enact public health policies that can prevent opioid overdose deaths and treat those suffering from opioid use disorder.
The coalition, led by District of Columbia Attorney General Karl A. Racine, is asking the Supreme Court to review a ruling by the U.S Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit that prevents Safehouse, a Pennsylvania nonprofit, from operating a lifesaving “safe injection site” that can prevent opioid overdose deaths. This medically-supervised site would afford those who consume opioids immediate medical care in the event of an overdose. The Trump Administration sued to prevent Safehouse from operating the program.
“Preventing Safehouse and entities like it from operating will not save lives or reverse the harm inflicted by this ongoing epidemic – it only penalizes people struggling with an opioid addiction,” Nessel said. “It should be up to individual states and communities to oversee and implement public health policies and I join my colleagues in urging the Supreme Court to hear this case.”
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 136 Americans die each day from an opioid overdose. Opioid deaths have been on the rise in the United States since 1999. The death toll now totals nearly 500,000.
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