Three years after Utah lawmakers legalized syringe exchange programs to curtail the spread of disease, community groups have taken more than half-a-million dirty needles off the street and handed out about 834,000 clean ones.
Now, some local health advocates are pushing to take another — and more controversial — step toward mitigating the dangers of drug use, by creating safe havens where people can inject or consume substances under supervision.
Such centers, sometimes called supervised consumption sites or safe injection sites, are in operation in 12 countries, but attempts to open them in the United States have succumbed to political opposition and community pushback.