A proposal in Springfield would allow state-licensed drug injection sites to open across Illinois in an effort to reduce fatal overdoses amid a nationwide opioid crisis that has hit Cook County particularly hard.
State Rep. LaShawn Ford, a Democrat from the Austin neighborhood, introduced the measure last year, before the country’s first injection sites opened in New York City. At a news conference in Springfield Thursday, Ford insisted that setting up safe spaces and bolstering other overdose prevention strategies would “save taxpayer dollars while saving lives.”
