California advances bid to create legal drug injection sites

By DON THOMPSON
Associated Press

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — The California Assembly has approved a controversial bill allowing Los Angeles, Oakland and San Francisco to set up places where opioid users could legally inject drugs in supervised settings. The move Thursday follows months of debate. Proponents say it would save lives, while detractors say it would enable drug addiction. The Assembly’s approval sends the bill back to the state Senate for final consideration. The idea is to give people who would use drugs anyway a location to inject them while trained staff are available to help if they suffer accidental overdoses. The move comes amid a national opioid crisis and spike in overdose deaths.