As a medical and public health student at Northwestern, Ive witnessed the advances weve made in treating opioid use disorders and overdoses. A medication called naloxone (brand name Narcan) allows for seemingly miraculous saves by blocking the action of opioids, often bringing patients back from the brink of death.

Despite the increasing use of naloxone in Illinois, overdose deaths have continued to rise. The opioid crisis resulted in 2,233 deaths in Illinois in 2019 and has grown even worse during the stress and isolation of the COVID-19 pandemic.

How can it be that deaths from opioid overdoses continue to decimate our communities when such incredible, life-saving medicine exists?

One answer is that, much like giving an anti-venom medication to someone bitten by a rattlesnake, the key is administering naloxone as quickly as possible. We recently completed a research study of opioid overdose deaths in Illinois using coroner report data from the Statewide Unintentional Drug Overdose Reporting System, which showed the majority of deaths occur before emergency services arrive. Life-saving work is being done by groups like Chicago Recovery Alliance by giving community members naloxone and teaching them how to use it. Yet even training community members wont save the lives of the many people dying alone in their homes, abandoned buildings, motels, gas stations and sidewalks.

Overdose prevention sites would be much safer places to use drugs than the isolated locations where our friends and loved ones are dying. These buildings have trained staff who can quickly administer naloxone. They can provide clean supplies like syringes to prevent HIV and HEP-C transmission and simple on-site testing services to determine whether drugs are contaminated by fentanyl or other dangerous additives. They also can support recovery by connecting people with social resources and medical treatment opportunities.

Canada has had official sites for years. Studies looking at these sites have shown massive decreases in deaths from overdoses. The first official site in North America opened in Vancouver in 2003. Since then, they have had millions of visits, reduced lethal overdoses in the surrounding area by a third and intervened in thousands of overdoses without losing a single life.

Despite the success of these sites internationally, the U.S. still does not have any official sites of our own. In our pursuit of a failed war on drugs, we have instead waged war on and stigmatized friends and loved ones, making it harder for them to get treatment. In the war-on-drugs mentality, the solution has been to arrest and imprison people struggling with substance use disorders. But if our own children or parents were struggling with opioid use, would we rather they use heroin alone in an abandoned building or in a safe environment?

Chicago has an incredible opportunity in front of us to save lives in our communities with evidence-based treatments. While some residents may be concerned about public safety, the creation of Canadian sites actually reduced public drug use, resident complaints, and discarded syringes in the surrounding areas.

Gov. J.B. Pritzker in January signed an executive order establishing a steering committee for addressing the opioid crisis. One result of its work is the ongoing effort to open an overdose prevention site in Chicago's West Side, where there were more than 2,500 fatal and non-fatal opioid overdoses in 2019.

Sanctioned overdose prevention sites are allowed to operate legally in Illinois. However, their success will require coordination and support from local political and law enforcement leaders. Cook County State's Attorney Kim Foxx has already come out in support of overdose prevention sites. Mayor Lori Lightfoot has not yet taken a public position.

Each of us can do our part by calling the mayor and our aldermen, asking them to support the creation of overdose prevention sites in Chicago. This is a crucial first step in saving lives and turning the tide on the devastation of the opioid crisis.

Robert Tessier is a fourth-year student at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, where he is earning his M.D. and MPH degrees.

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Opioid overdose prevention sites are overdue in Chicago - Crain's Chicago Business