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Safe Consumption Sites Under Trump
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In January 2024, I published a piece analyzing the legal status of the safe consumption sites in Pennsylvania, New York, California, and Rhode Island.[1] While safe consumption sites are forbidden by federal statute, under the Biden administration, the Department of Justice did not pursue litigation against the safe consumption sites that opened in New York and Rhode Island. With President Trump’s return to office, it is important to take another look at the legal challenges these sites face and how his executive orders might affect their operation.
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
The Philadelphia non-profit Safehouse continues its protracted legal battle with the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s office.[2] As I covered in my previous post, in February 2019, the Trump-appointed U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, William McSwain, first filed a complaint for declaratory judgment to prevent Safehouse from opening a safe consumption site. McSwain’s complaint relied on 21 U.S.C. § 856(a)(2), the so-called “crack house statute,” a federal law banning safe consumption sites. In January 2021, the Third Circuit held that Safehouse could not open such a site.[3]
When I wrote my last piece, Safehouse, following the Third Circuit’s holding, had filed a counterclaim, arguing that preventing it from operating a safe consumption site violated its rights under both the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) and the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment.[4] Safehouse argued that, because its founding mission was based on religious values, prosecution under federal law preventing supervised consumption sites violated its religious freedoms.[5]
After my last piece, in April 2024, the Eastern District of Pennsylvania dismissed Safehouse’s counterclaim and held that Safehouse could be enjoined from opening a safe consumption site.[6] The court held that neither the RFRA nor the Free Exercise Clause protects non-religious actions based on religious motivations, and dismissed the case on the basis that “Safehouse is not a religious entity.”[7]
Safehouse appealed to the Third Circuit, and in July 2024, the Third Circuit held that the Eastern District’s ruling was reversible error.[8] It held that the RFRA and Free Exercise Clause apply to “a non-natural entity allegedly exercising religion, even if the entity itself is not religious.”[9] The Third Circuit remanded the case back to the Eastern District to consider whether enjoining Safehouse from opening a safe consumption site does violate Safehouse’s right to freedom of religion.[10]
It is worth noting that, while the litigation began under the Trump administration, the Biden administration did not drop the case. However, the Biden administration did not pursue litigation against the three other safe consumption sites that opened between 2021 and 2024, as discussed below.
Unfortunately, while Safehouse has been in court, Philadelphia has created another roadblock to Safehouse’s opening. In September 2023, the Philadelphia City Council passed a bill to ban safe injection sites in nine of the ten council districts in the city.[11] Even if Safehouse is successful in court, it will be limited in where it can locate its facility.
New York, New York
OnPoint NYC has operated two safe consumption sites in Washington Heights and East Harlem since November 2021.[12] Since opening, the sites have been utilized over 200,000 times and reversed 1,948 overdoses.[13]
In January 2025, Staten Island Congresswoman Nicole Malliotakis introduced a bill called the “Defund Heroin Injection Centers Act of 2025” in the United States House of Representatives, calling to prohibit federal funding to any safe injection centers.[14] The House has not taken any action on Rep. Malliotakis’s bill. In February 2025, Rep. Malliotakis also wrote a letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi asking her to close OnPoint NYC’s safe consumption sites, alleging that they violate federal law.[15] There is no indication that Attorney General Bondi is planning to take action on Rep. Malliotakis’s request. Newly elected New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani has stated that he intends to keep OnPoint NYC up and running, but hedged in his last debate about whether he would expand the program.[16]
San Francisco, California
In 2023, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors passed legislation that would allow non-profits to open privately funded safe consumption sites.[17] However, no such sites have opened. While he has not directly spoken about safe consumption sites, San Francisco’s new mayor, Daniel Laurie, announced in April 2025 that he would drastically curtail the ability of current public health programs to provide safe use supplies to participants.[18] Such a dramatic policy shift away from harm reduction indicates that Mayor Laurie is unlikely to support future safe consumption sites.
Providence, Rhode Island
After becoming the first state to pass legislation allowing safe injection sites in 2021, Rhode Island awarded the contract to open the state’s first safe injection site to Project Weber/RENEW in April 2023.[19] In February 2024, the Providence City Council approved locating the site next to the Rhode Island Hospital.[20] In December 2024, Project Weber’s Overdose Prevention Center opened its doors.[21] By April 2025, the site had served over 500 visitors and prevented 27 overdoses.[22] After debate, the Rhode Island House of Representatives voted to extend the program for another two years, until March 2028.[23] Internet searches reveal no actions taken by the Attorney General of the United States or Rhode Island to close the site.
Discussion
While the litigation over Safehouse Philadelphia that began during President Trump’s first term is ongoing, so far, Trump’s Department of Justice has not taken action against any of the safe consumption sites that opened during the Biden administration. However, this does not mean he will not take action. There is reason to be concerned about Trump’s future plans for safe consumption sites.
On July 24, 2025, Trump issued the executive order “Ending Crime and Disorder on America’s Streets.”[24] The order, aimed at “protecting public safety,” claims that “endemic vagrancy, disorderly behavior, sudden confrontations, and violent attacks” have made American cities unsafe.[25] Section Four of the order, titled “Redirecting Federal Resources Toward Effective Methods of Addressing Homelessness,” states that the Secretary of Health and Human Services shall “ensure that discretionary grants issued by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration” (SAMHSA) do not fund “harm reduction” or “safe consumption” programs.[26] Section Five, titled “Increasing Accountability and Safety in America’s Homelessness Programs,” instructs that “recipients of Federal housing and homelessness assistance that operate drug injection sites or ‘safe consumption sites’” should be investigated and have their funding frozen.[27]
Currently, New York’s OnPoint NYC and Rhode Island’s Project Weber/RENEW are the only safe consumption sites in operation. OnPoint NYC’s website indicates that it receives funding from other non-profits, New York State agencies, and SAMHSA.[28] Project Weber/RENEW’s website states that the majority of its funding comes from opioid settlements between Rhode Island’s attorney general and pharmaceutical companies.[29] Since OnPoint NYC receives some funding from SAMHSA, that funding may be terminated as a result of Section Four of the order. However, since neither OnPoint NYC nor Project Weber/RENEW receive “Federal housing and homelessness assistance,” it is unclear whether Section Five of the order will affect them.
Section Five further instructs the Attorney General to investigate and charge “such recipients,” but again, OnPoint NYC and Project Weber/RENEW do not appear to receive “Federal housing and homelessness assistance.” While they can certainly still be prosecuted under 21 U.S.C. § 856(a)(2) – the statute preventing Safehouse from opening – at this time, it seems they will be unaffected by Trump’s executive order. It does not appear that any other harm reduction organizations have lost funding or been charged due to Trump’s order so far, but his order does starkly indicate that his administration does not intend to allow safe consumption sites to operate.
In fact, most of Trump’s presidential action in the sphere of substance abuse has been international, such as his January 2025 executive orders titled “Designating Cartels and Other Organizations as Foreign Terrorist Organizations and Specially Designated Global Terrorists” and boat strikes in the Caribbean against alleged “narcoterrorists.”[30]
So far, the protracted litigation against Safehouse is the only government action that has been taken against safe consumption sites. OnPoint NYC and Project Weber/RENEW have not yet been subject to criminal charges by the Trump Department of Justice. While OnPoint NYC could lose some funding, based on the amount of funding they receive from other sources, it does not appear that the loss of SAMHSA funding would force these centers to shut their doors. Project Weber/RENEW will similarly be unaffected by funding cuts. It remains to be seen whether the Department of Justice will bring charges against either organization under federal law.
[1] Quinn MacRae, The Legal Status of Safe Consumption Sites, BJCL (Jan. 17, 2024), https://www.bjcl.org/blog/the-legal-status-of-safe-consumption-sites
[2] Jackson Healy, Philly Nonprofit Seeks Another Shot at Supervised Injection Sites Under Religious Exemption, Courthouse News (Apr. 9, 2025), https://www.courthousenews.com...
[3] Quinn MacRae, The Legal Status of Safe Consumption Sites, BJCL (Jan. 17, 2024), https://www.bjcl.org/blog/the-legal-status-of-safe-consumption-sites
[4] Jackson Healy, “Great Feeling of Lost Opportunity”: Philadelphia Group Loses Bid for Supervised Injection Site, Courthouse News (Apr. 4, 2024), https://www.courthousenews.com/great-feeling-of-lost-opportunity-philadelphia-group-loses-bid-for-supervised-injection-site/
[5] Id.
[6] United States v. Safehouse, 729 F. Supp. 3d 451 (E.D. Pa. 2024)
[7] Id.
[8] Diana Novak Jones, Religious Freedom Laws Apply in Drug Injection Site Case, Court Says, Reuters (July 24, 2025), https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/religious-freedom-laws-apply-drug-injection-site-case-court-says-2025-07-24/.
[9] United States v. Safehouse, 146 F.4th 315, 319 (3d Cir. 2025)
[10] Id.
[11] Nicole Leonard, Philadelphia City Council Passes Near-Total Ban on Future Supervised Consumption, Overdose Prevention Sites, WHYY (Sept. 14, 2023), https://whyy.org/articles/philadelphia-city-council-passes-near-total-ban-on-future-safe-consumption-overdose-prevention-sites/
[12] Overdose Prevention Centers, https://onpointnyc.org/overdose-prevention-centers/" class="redactor-autoparser-object">https://onpointnyc.org/overdos...
[13] OnPoint NYC, https://onpointnyc.org/
[14] Carl Campanile, Trump Targets Injection Sites Where Drug Addicts Consume With New York’s Blessing, N.Y. Post (July 30, 2025), https://nypost.com/2025/07/30/us-news/trump-targets-injection-sites-where-drug-addicts-consume-with-new-yorks-blessing/
[15] Carl Campanile and Reuven Fenton, Trump Asked to Shut Down NYC ‘Injection Sites’ Where Drug Addicts Consume With Impunity, N.Y. Post (Feb. 12, 2025), https://www.nypost.com/2025/02...
[16] Ethan Geringer-Sameth, Mamdani reverses support for expanding overdose prevention centers in final debate, Crains New York Business (Oct. 23, 2025), https://www.crainsnewyork.com/health-pulse/mamdani-changes-course-overdose-prevention-center-expansion.
[17] Taylor Romine, San Francisco supervisors vote to allow non-profits to operate supervised drug injection sites, CNN (Mar. 1, 2023), https://www.cnn.com/2023/02/28/politics/san-francisco-drug-injection-sites-approved/index.html.
[18] Mayor Lurie Ends Distribution of Fentanyl Smoking Supplies Without Counseling and Treatment, SF.gov (Apr. 2, 2025), https://www.sf.gov/news-mayor-lurie-ends-distribution-of-fentanyl-smoking-supplies-without-counseling-and-treatment.
[19] Jacob Smollen, Rhode Island moves closer to opening first overdose prevention center, Brown Daily Herald (Feb. 8, 2023), https://www.browndailyherald.com/article/2023/02/rhode-island-moves-closer-to-opening-first-overdose-prevention-center.
[20] Anna Betts, Providence Officials Approve Overdose Prevention Center, New York Times (Feb. 4, 2024), https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/04/us/ri-opiod-safe-injection-site.html.
[21] Project Weber/RENEW Hosts Ribbon Cutting for Country’s First State-Sanctioned Overdose Prevention Center, Weber/RENEW, https://weberrenew.org/project-weber-renew-hosts-ribbon-cutting-for-countrys-first-state-sanctioned-overdose-prevention-center/.
[22] Nancy Lavin, Four years after R.I. lawmakers OK safe injection site program, they’re still debating its merits, Rhode Island Current (Apr. 2, 2025), https://rhodeislandcurrent.com/2025/04/02/four-years-after-r-i-lawmakers-ok-safe-injection-site-program-theyre-still-debating-its-merits/.
[23] Id.
[24] Exec. Order No. 14321, 90 Fed. Reg. 35817 (Jul. 29, 2025).
[25] Id.
[26] Id.
[27] Id.
[28] Financials, OnPoint NYC, https://onpointnyc.org/financials/.
[29] Overdose Prevention Center, Weber/RENEW, https://weberrenew.org/overdose-prevention-center/.
[30] Exec. Order No. 14157, 90 Fed. Reg. 8439 (Jan. 29, 2025).; Garcia Cano, A timeline of U.S. military escalation against Venezuela leading to Maduro's capture, Associated Press (Jan. 3, 2026), https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/a-timeline-of-u-s-military-escalation-against-venezuela-leading-to-maduros-capture.