[bolognium]

London has had a temporary safe injection site downtown for years now (I live about 100 meters away from it). The current plan is for a permanent site, 5 blocks away from this one on the other side of downtown (literally across the street from a mission).

My main criticism here is that the city is going with a single-site model. Whether people like to admit it or not, the areas around these sites turn into complete zoos and are filthy with litter, waste, needles, and people squatting. People congregate there and spend time there 24 hours a day. Also, criminals prey on the already disadvantaged people, since they are all meeting, waiting, and hanging out in the same place.

I think safe injection sites are necessary, but having a single one serving a large area turns the site into a very unsavory place. So the city just shoves the site into the already least-pleasant location and crosses its fingers that the surrounding residents and businesses can survive. I'd wager having a larger number of smaller sites would help break up this congregating effect, and would have a smaller impact on the businesses are residents around them. Instead of having one extremely undesirable area with increased crime, litter, and homelessness we would see the problem spread out over numerous smaller sites. Still not an ideal situation, but better than laser-focusing all the issues into one corner of our downtown.