美国国家公共电台 NPR Supporters Sue To Open Safe Injection Site In Philadelphia, Citing Religious Freedom

 

SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

The U.S. Justice Department and a Philadelphia nonprofit are locked in a legal battle. The nonprofit is called Safehouse. They want to open a facility where people can inject drugs under supervision². Prosecutors³ took legal action to try to block the site from opening. Now Safehouse has filed a countersuit against the Trump⁴ administration. Bobby Allyn of member station WHYY reports.

BOBBY ALLYN, BYLINE⁵: In Philadelphia, about three people a day die from drug overdoses. The severity of the problem is why public officials here are supporting opening a space for people to use illegal opioids under medical supervision.

TOM FARLEY: I'm a public health official whose job it is to prevent needless deaths.

ALLYN: Philadelphia Health Commissioner⁶ Tom Farley.

FARLEY: The evidence is clear that these facilities save lives while, at the same time, serving as an entry way into drug treatment.

ALLYN: The idea is to allow people to bring their own drugs, use them while being monitored by nurses and other medical staff, then offer access to treatment, legal counseling, housing and other social services. Supervised injection sites have operated in Canada, Europe and Australia. But one has never officially opened in the United States. U.S. Attorney for the Philadelphia area Bill McSwain wants to keep it that way.

BILL MCSWAIN: These are folks who have good intentions. But we think that this step of opening an injection site is a step that crosses the line.

ALLYN: The folks McSwain is talking about are the members of Safehouse, the nonprofit hoping to launch the country's first injection site this year. So McSwain and the Trump administration sued Safehouse. They cite so-called crack-house laws that make it a crime to own a property where drugs are being used. In response, Safehouse has now assembled a team of a dozen pro¹ bono lawyers and has countersued the government. Safehouse lawyers say those laws from the 1980s were never meant to apply to a medical facility in the midst of a modern public health crisis. Lawyer Ronda Goldfein is the vice⁷ president of Safehouse.

RONDA GOLDFEIN: If we feel like this is in our power to make this happen or to go down trying, we owe it to all those we've lost.

ALLYN: Advocates compare the injection site's lifesaving potential to how syringe exchanges helped reduce deaths during the AIDS epidemic⁸. Officials in Massachusetts, New York, Colorado and California have discussed similar injection site proposals. But because of the legal uncertainty⁹, most of those efforts have stalled. The judge's ruling could reverberate¹⁰ around the country, either paving the way for injection sites or, McSwain hopes, permanently¹¹ blocking them.

MCSWAIN: You know, this is something that I think that people will be looking at as, in a sense, a test case that could have implications in other districts.

ALLYN: Yet McSwain says there's a big difference between handing out clean needles and inviting¹² people in a space to use their own drugs.

In Philadelphia's Kensington neighborhood, opioid user Joe has a different perspective. We're only using Joe's first name, since he uses illegal drugs. He's 35, from New Jersey¹³ and used to sell mortgage loans for a living. Now he's in the throes of addiction¹⁴.

JOE: It's sad to see the people that are dying, man. I've had so many friends dying, so many people that are on this that - it's just they're not the same person. And I'm not the same person. And we're not the same people.

ALLYN: Joe is standing¹⁵ around discarded needles right across the street from a building Safehouse is considering moving into. Its by a noisy train track platform. Joe says he almost died from a opioid overdose. He says if the injection site opens, he'd quickly become one of its clients.

JOE: Using in front of the medical staff and knowing that someone's educated and trained, and they're going to get the proper treatment if they need it...

ALLYN: ...Versus¹⁶, Joe says, using in abandoned buildings, alleyways and fast-food bathrooms, where often a fatal overdose can happen without anybody watching. For NPR News, I'm Bobby Allyn in Philadelphia.

1 pro   

n.赞成，赞成的意见，赞成者

参考例句：

• The two debating teams argued the question pro and con.辩论的两组从赞成与反对两方面辩这一问题。
• Are you pro or con nuclear disarmament?你是赞成还是反对核裁军？

2 supervision   

n.监督，管理

参考例句：

• The work was done under my supervision.这项工作是在我的监督之下完成的。
• The old man's will was executed under the personal supervision of the lawyer.老人的遗嘱是在律师的亲自监督下执行的。

3 prosecutors   

检举人( prosecutor的名词复数 )； 告发人； 起诉人； 公诉人

参考例句：

• In some places,public prosecutors are elected rather than appointed. 在有些地方，检察官是经选举而非任命产生的。 来自口语例句
• You've been summoned to the Prosecutors' Office, 2 days later. 你在两天以后被宣到了检察官的办公室。

4 trump   

n.王牌，法宝；v.打出王牌，吹喇叭

参考例句：

• He was never able to trump up the courage to have a showdown.他始终鼓不起勇气摊牌。
• The coach saved his star player for a trump card.教练保留他的明星选手，作为他的王牌。

5 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

6 commissioner   

n.（政府厅、局、处等部门）专员，长官，委员

参考例句：

• The commissioner has issued a warrant for her arrest.专员发出了对她的逮捕令。
• He was tapped for police commissioner.他被任命为警务处长。

7 vice   

n.坏事；恶习；[pl.]台钳，老虎钳；adj.副的

参考例句：

• He guarded himself against vice.他避免染上坏习惯。
• They are sunk in the depth of vice.他们堕入了罪恶的深渊。

8 epidemic   

n.流行病；盛行；adj.流行性的，流传极广的

参考例句：

• That kind of epidemic disease has long been stamped out.那种传染病早已绝迹。
• The authorities tried to localise the epidemic.当局试图把流行病限制在局部范围。

9 uncertainty   

n.易变，靠不住，不确知，不确定的事物

参考例句：

• Her comments will add to the uncertainty of the situation.她的批评将会使局势更加不稳定。
• After six weeks of uncertainty,the strain was beginning to take its toll.6个星期的忐忑不安后，压力开始产生影响了。

10 reverberate   

v.使回响，使反响

参考例句：

• The decision will reverberate and will jar the country.这项决定将引起反响并震撼这个国家。
• Echoes of cries of pain reverberate in my hear.痛苦呼喊的一遍遍的在我的心中回响。

11 permanently   

adv.永恒地，永久地，固定不变地

参考例句：

• The accident left him permanently scarred.那次事故给他留下了永久的伤疤。
• The ship is now permanently moored on the Thames in London.该船现在永久地停泊在伦敦泰晤士河边。

12 inviting   

adj.诱人的，引人注目的

参考例句：

• An inviting smell of coffee wafted into the room.一股诱人的咖啡香味飘进了房间。
• The kitchen smelled warm and inviting and blessedly familiar.这间厨房的味道温暖诱人，使人感到亲切温馨。

13 jersey   

n.运动衫

参考例句：

• He wears a cotton jersey when he plays football.他穿运动衫踢足球。
• They were dressed alike in blue jersey and knickers.他们穿着一致，都是蓝色的运动衫和灯笼短裤。

14 addiction   

n.上瘾入迷，嗜好

参考例句：

• He stole money from his parents to feed his addiction.他从父母那儿偷钱以满足自己的嗜好。
• Areas of drug dealing are hellholes of addiction,poverty and murder.贩卖毒品的地区往往是吸毒上瘾、贫困和发生谋杀的地方。

15 standing   

n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的

参考例句：

• After the earthquake only a few houses were left standing.地震过后只有几幢房屋还立着。
• They're standing out against any change in the law.他们坚决反对对法律做任何修改。

16 versus   

prep.以…为对手，对；与…相比之下

参考例句：

• The big match tonight is England versus Spain.今晚的大赛是英格兰对西班牙。
• The most exciting game was Harvard versus Yale.最富紧张刺激的球赛是哈佛队对耶鲁队。