Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott wants to create in his city a supervised safe space for people to use illegal drugs. Scott appeared to get the idea for a drug consumption site in Baltimore — a facility that would be opened with the goal of reducing overdose deaths in the city — earlier this year after 11 News Investigates visited such a site in New York City. 

“This is something that we want to bring to Baltimore,” Scott told the network. “In order for us to get people the treatment that they need – and when they’re ready for it – and to get them into the places and spaces they need, the first thing they have to do is be alive.”

Now, I know what a lot of you are thinking: Wait, isn’t this an episode of The Wire? Is Scott talking about “Hamsterdam?”

For those who aren’t familiar with the show (shame on you, by the way), in the third season of The Wire, a West Baltimore police major comes up with the bright idea of reducing crime in the city by rounding up all of the local drug dealers and users and moving them into designated areas where they use and sell drugs freely without fear of police intervention as long as there was no violence in those zones. In the show, the initiative resulted in a steep drop in crime and West Baltimore residents were happy because their kids could play in the streets again. There were even volunteer health professionals who provided fresh needles and condoms to drug addicts with the hopes of reducing the spread of STDs. The whole thing eventually blew up, though, because the higher-ups in the city only saw the ugliness of all of the city’s dirty laundry (i.e. the drug trade) all piled up into small designated areas and the scandal of it all being legally sanctioned. So, the whole thing got shut down despite the reduction in crime and the possibility that “Hampsterdam” (which the locals dubbed the drug zones) could have worked if it was given the time to develop.

Of course, The Wire is a fictional show, but facilities aimed at providing safer environments and practices to those suffering from drug addiction are certainly real.

More from 11 News:

The sites would be modeled on facilities he visited in New York City that are run by OnPoint NYC, a nonprofit funded by the New York Health Department, as well as federal grants and donations.

The facilities provide a judgment-free zone where people bring in their own drugs. They sign in and write down what they are using, all with a goal to keep people alive until they are ready to seek treatment.

When 11 News Investigates toured an OnPoint NYC facility in September, officials there explained that the facility provides a safe place for people to shoot up, smoke crack or snort drugs.

Everyone who works there has a medical background and supervises the drug ingestion area. They test for a variety of substances that are often mixed with illicit drugs that can trigger an overdose. Employees stand behind mirrors to check on users every three minutes, and if they see any sign of an overdose, they respond immediately with oxygen. They have successfully intervened 1,600 times.

In order to open facilities like these in Baltimore, Scott would need the help of state lawmakers. In fact, bills aimed at creating a supervised consumption pilot program have already been filed in the Maryland House and Senate. Baltimore County Sen. Shelly Hettleman (D-District 11), who also visited OnPoint NYC, has filed legislation to open two of six drug use facilities proposed statewide. Those facilities would be approved by the Maryland Department of Health and local health offices.

“This is not an imposition on anyone. The impetus has to come from the local community and a local organization, and it’s a pilot program. And, it would create and enable six different sites around the state – two urban, two suburban and two rural,” Hettleman told 11 News.

Anyone who is compassionate and understands people suffering from drug addiction are human beings too should, at the very least, see supervised drug consumption sites as a potential alternative to locking addicts up or just letting them overdose.

As Hettleman said, “It’s about saving lives.”

Or don’t “all lives matter” anymore?

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