The program is an effort to lower overdoses in the state, which have been increasing since 2019
Organizers are ready to launch the first regulated drug use site in Rhode Island this summer, a plan that was first announced as an effort to curb rising overdoses in the state.
The first site will come from nonprofit Project Weber/RENEW in partnership with VICTA, a private outpatient program focused on mental health and substance abuse issues. The drug use site will open near the Rhode Island Hospital, the organizations announced this week.
Similar sites opened in New York in 2021 to respond to increasing overdoses.
In 2022, 434 Rhode Islanders died from accidental overdose, according to state data . That was hardly a change from the prior year when 435 residents died and numbers have been increasing since 2019.
Rhode Island Gov. Daniel McKee, D, signed a law in 2021 allowing for pilot programs like the drug sites to go forward in the state.
Many eyes will be on the program in Rhode Island and its effectiveness, including researchers from the Brown University School of Public Health, which announced it will be part of studying the effects the site has on the state.