Seattle approves first safe heroin-injection site in US

City officials in Seattle approved the first safe-injection site in the US on Friday, The Washington Post reported. The site, which will open for heroin users and other illegal drugs, would provide clean needles, medical supervision, and easy access to drugs that reversed the effects of overdose.

Supervised injection sites already exist in Europe, and are essentially facilities where people can do their drugs with clean equipment under professional supervision. Though the idea might seem controversial, the epidemic of drug overdoses could be better managed with such facilities, according to supporters of such measures.

"It's the natural next step in harm reduction," Joshua Lee, MD, an addiction expert at New York University's Langone Medical Center, said last year. "Wear a condom, use clean needles, and use your heroin in a safer way."

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported that 33,000 people had died of opioid overdoses in 2015 alone, with 132 people dying of heroin overdoses in Seattle.

"We see this as a public health emergency," Jeff Duchin, the health officer for Seattle and King County told Washington Post. "Clearly the status quo isn't working anywhere, and clearly we need to look at new tools."

"The real goal is not to open a day spa where people can come in and have a good time and use drugs, but to engage them in treatment," Duchin added.

According to opponents the sites promoted illegal drug use, but supporters say they could keep people alive and steer them toward treatment. They compare supervised injection facilities to the needle exchanges that became popular in the 1980s and 1990s as a way to get a grip over the spread of HIV and hepatitis C among intravenous drug users.

''These sites save lives and that is our goal in Seattle / King County,'' Seattle mayor Ed Murray said in a statement.