Impact of Providence’s Overdose Prevention Center on Drug Users

A nonprofit is opening a facility where people can use drugs under medical supervision. It also offers connections to drug treatment

More than 400 people died of a drug overdose in Rhode Island in 2023.
More than 400 people died of a drug overdose in Rhode Island in 2023.
Jeremy Bernfeld / The Public’s Radio
Share
More than 400 people died of a drug overdose in Rhode Island in 2023.
More than 400 people died of a drug overdose in Rhode Island in 2023.
Jeremy Bernfeld / The Public’s Radio
Impact of Providence’s Overdose Prevention Center on Drug Users
Copy

Jason first started using fentanyl a few years ago, when the pandemic threw his life off balance. By now, he’s used to hiding his drug use.

“You duck into, like, an alley, or behind a car or somewhere where no one’s going to see you,” he said.

The Public’s Radio is only using Jason’s first name because he uses illegal drugs. He knows that using alone, in tucked-away places, makes it even riskier to use a drug as dangerous as fentanyl.

“When no one sees you, no one’s going to find you if you overdose,” he said. “And, you know, I’ve lost a few friends, and no one’s found them.”

That’s the problem a new facility is hoping to solve.

This story was reported by The Public’s Radio. You can read the entire story here.

Texas court granted feds’ request demanding records of Rhode Island minors with gender dysphoria on same day
With colorful windsocks and a gazebo, Providence artist Eli Nixon developed an art installation to bring attention to the air quality around the Port of Providence
At her family’s farm in Foster, Izzy Hoffman is raising endangered lambs and preserving a centuries-old Indigenous farming tradition
A Dodgers standout, and South Providence native, he combined elite base stealing with power and helped anchor one of MLB’s most durable infields
Priced out of trains and shuttles, Scotland fans in Providence are rolling to Foxboro in a fleet of yellow school buses
With only about 380 North Atlantic right whales left, scientists warn human-caused deaths remain the biggest threat