PHILADELPHIA — A divided appeals court on Tuesday rejected a plan to open a supervised injection site in Philadelphia to try to reduce overdose deaths, concluding the operation would violate a 1980s-era drug law aimed at “crackhouses.” The 2-1 decision proved the latest setback for city officials, an ex-governor and public health advocates who support the Safehouse plan as more …
A Philadelphia nonprofit group said it will open the nation’s first supervised injection site next week to combat overdose deaths after a federal judge rejected Justice Department efforts to block the plan. U.S. District Judge Gerald McHugh, in a final ruling Tuesday, said the Safehouse proposal doesn’t violate federal drug laws because the intent is to save lives, not encourage …