for Seven Days VT: 'Safe Haven' by José A. Alvarado Jr.

News

for Seven Days VT: 'Safe Haven'

josé a. alvarado jr.

Apr 10, 2024

Location: East Harlem, New York City

Summary

Vermont Is Considering Controversial Overdose-Prevention Sites. 'Seven Days' Went to New York City to See One.

Greg Gordon never shoots up alone anymore. He knows the heroin he buys on the street in East Harlem is deadlier than ever, often mixed with fentanyl, a potent synthetic opioid, and xylazine, an animal tranquilizer. So when he wants to get high, as he does almost daily, Gordon goes somewhere he can use drugs among people he trusts to save him if he overdoses.

That place is an old four-story red-brick building on East 126th Street, between a cramped bodega and a litter-strewn parking lot ringed with razor wire. And those people are the staff at OnPoint NYC, a nonprofit that since 2021 has operated the only two approved overdose-prevention centers in the United States, both in New York City. Gordon can bring his drugs to inject or smoke there while a trained staff member looks on, ready to intervene if he overdoses.

"This is like a safe haven." Greg Gordon

On an early afternoon this month, the 52-year-old former contractor rolled his wheelchair up to a cubicle and injected opioids. Then he retired to a private room to smoke crack cocaine.

When he was finished, he packed up his drug kit, pulled a neck warmer up over his gray beard and prepared to head back out into the streets. If it weren't for OnPoint NYC, he said, that's where he'd be using, risking overdose, robbery or worse.

"This is like a safe haven," Gordon said in a soft, languid voice that showed signs of the drugs' effects. "I know they're not going to let anything bad happen to me."

Seven Days spent an afternoon at OnPoint's East Harlem location on March 7 as Vermont officials considered whether the strategy could work for the rural state. The drug epidemic has killed nearly 1,000 people in Vermont since 2019 and has made many residents feel their communities are less safe. Lawmakers in Montpelier appear likely to pass a bill in the next few weeks authorizing a pilot program with two overdose-prevention centers.

Photographed for Seven Days, with words by Kevin McCallum

Could Overdose Prevention Sites Work in Vermont? | Seven Days
As Vermont considers safe injection sites as a solution to the drug crisis, Seven Days went to New York City to see one.
Sevendaysvt.com

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José A. Alvarado Jr.

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