Contributed photo
Shannon Carter.
In July of 2021, New Haven lost a harm reduction giant and a massively important member of the community, Jason Crowell. I don’t speak for all of Jason’s loved ones but I firmly believe that Jason died from stigma driven by the War on Drugs.
Fear around judgment and damage to professional reputation drives people to use substances on their own rather than face potential social or legal consequences. Jason died alone, after a period of recovery and a recent college graduation. In a short span of time, Jason returned to substance use and fatally overdosed, leaving a hole in the New Haven community that persists. My breath still catches in my throat anytime I see a black-and-white photo on Instagram, immediately assuming the worst. No one should have to use alone or be without support but under our current system there are few other options.
At the time I was a public health graduate student and a volunteer on the mobile syringe exchange van run by the Sex Workers and Allies Network, SWAN (now part of the Connecticut Harm Reduction Alliance). Jason was the first person I knew who died from an overdose but likely will not be the last. What happened to Jason happens all the time, it just doesn’t always make the news.
In 2023, 1,343 people died from an unintentional fatal overdose in Connecticut, according to the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner. According to the CDC, the age-adjusted fatal overdose rate in Connecticut in 2022 was 40.3 per 100,000 people, significantly higher than the nationwide average of 32.6.
This Saturday, Aug. 31, marks International Overdose Awareness Day, which, according to the International Overdose Awareness Day website, “is the world’s largest annual campaign to end overdose, remember without stigma, those who have died and acknowledge the grief of family and friends left behind. Every year people gather to grieve, distribute harm reduction supplies, and work to end the stigma. This ritual has been occurring since 2001 with events held in Connecticut at least as far back as 2016.
Despite increased resources and awareness, people are still dying at alarming rates. People who use drugs are still among the most marginalized communities.
We need to try something new. A promising first step is Overdose Prevention Centers (OPCs).
Three years ago, at the end of the Metro North train line, the first legal OPC in the United States opened in New York City. OnPoint, with locations in East Harlem and Washington Heights, offers a safe, supervised place for people to consume their drugs. The programs vary but in general an OPC involves a short intake process to collect information about their participants and they offer hygienic spaces with varying levels of privacy to consume their drug of choice. These drugs are not procured on premises.
OnPoint offers a wide range of services including a syringe exchange, peer support, and assistance to meet basic needs like hygiene and nutrition. In their first year of operation, they successfully reversed over 1,000 unintentional overdoses. That is 1,000 chances at life for people that did not die alone of an unintentional overdose that year. In addition to the lives saved, participants shared that OnPoint had wide-ranging positive impacts on their lives, starting with being treated like a human being.
OPCs aren’t new. The first known site was established in Switzerland in 1986. In the face of the exploding HIV/AIDS crisis, providers acted urgently and established what eventually became the first publicly recognized OPC. Since then, countless publicly recognized and other OPCs have been established. These spaces play an integral role in protecting the lives of those who use drugs.
Legislative action is urgently needed to support and protect the establishment of OPCs that are life-saving community resources. Without institutional buy in, the unsanctioned sites face instability and constant harassment by law enforcement. This can lessen the perceived and actual safety of participants of these sites.
It is time for Connecticut to embrace this proven public health intervention and establish OPCs. We cannot continue to let our community members die. We cannot continue to lose friends and family when there are proven interventions. Lack of political movement on this front is an active choice towards the deaths of people that use drugs.
This Overdose Awareness Day, talk with your friends and family about protecting the lives of people who use drugs. This upcoming legislative session, contact your state reps, especially if they sit on the Public Health Committee. We need action now. We need Overdose Prevention Centers.
Shannon Carter has a Masters in Health Policy from the Yale School of Public Health and is a harm reduction volunteer.