Editing Opioid Crisis (section)

== Response Efforts ==

Philadelphia's response to the opioid crisis has combined multiple approaches. Treatment capacity has expanded through new medication-assisted treatment programs offering buprenorphine and methadone. Emergency responders and community members have been equipped with naloxone (Narcan), the overdose-reversing medication that has saved countless lives. Prevention programs target youth and prescribers. Law enforcement has focused on dealers while generally not arresting users for simple possession. The Department of Public Health has coordinated response across city agencies. These efforts have saved lives but have not reversed the epidemic's trajectory.<ref name="macy"/>

The most controversial response proposal has been supervised injection sites—facilities where people could use drugs under medical supervision, with staff prepared to reverse overdoses. Proponents argue that such sites save lives, connect users to treatment, and reduce public drug use. Opponents object to government-sanctioned drug consumption. Philadelphia's organization Safehouse attempted to open a supervised injection site but was blocked by federal court rulings that such facilities would violate the Controlled Substances Act. The debate over supervised injection illustrates the tension between harm reduction approaches that accept drug use as a reality to be managed and approaches that insist on abstinence as the only acceptable goal.<ref name="quinones"/>