Gerald Austin McHugh, a judge for the US District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, ruled Tuesday that a proposed supervised injection site in Philadelphia does not violate federal law.
Safehouse, a nonprofit organization that aims to reduce drug overdose deaths through prevention services, first announced their plans to institute the overdose prevention site in 2018 after receiving verbal support from city officials. However, after their announcement, the US Attorney brought suit in February 2019 alleging that the site would violate the Controlled Substances Act by encouraging the use of illegal drugs such as heroin.
