With opioid settlement funding coming to Southern New Mexico, local governments are debating how to best use the incoming money.
Like many other areas of the United States, the City of Las Cruces and surrounding communities have been devastated by the opioid epidemic. According to 2022 data from the Centers for Disease Control, New Mexico had the seventh highest rate of overdose deaths among all states. Some public health experts in Las Cruces are saying that safe use facilities could be a good step in reducing those numbers.
Safe use facilities, also known as overdose prevention centers, are areas where individuals are medically supervised while using substances, and are connected to other services that could help them overcome their addiction. Local public health experts Phillip Fiuty and Athena Huckaby are in favor of bringing a facility to the city, with Fiuty saying the center would not only reduce drug-related deaths, but could remedy other issues in the community.
“Where these have been successfully implemented, [it] ironically meets the needs of the immediate community that was most opposed to them. That is getting public drug use and dealing off the streets, public urination, people congregating and doing all that stuff.”
The City of Las Cruces is slated to receive roughly $10 million through 2038, stemming from settlements from pharmaceutical companies, while Doña Ana County will receive roughly $14.5 million in settlement funding. Fiuty said that he believes many pieces are already in place in terms of implementing an overdose prevention site in Las Cruces.
“I think it would be a relatively simple thing to do, and do it in a way that presented a minimal amount of conflict with all the interested parties,” he said. “I really think that if this is a crisis, it would be great if people would treat it as such, and be willing to take some risks and do something a little different than we’ve already done.”
Huckaby echoed Fiuty’s sentiment, and said she hopes the city is open to doing a pilot-project to let the results of an overdose prevention site speak for itself.
“I think doing what we’ve always done and expecting different results is a weird mindset,” she said. “It’s really frustrating. I really feel like the finger gets pointed at individuals that are ending up caught in these systems instead of the system [itself.] And I’m always trying to call people’s attention back to the systems that caused these problems. It’s pretty easy to point the finger at a person, it’s a lot harder to point a finger at a system that’s designed to trap people.”
But the idea of an overdose prevention center has some community members speaking publicly against the concept, including local business owner Vic Villalobos.
“I think drug use is a huge issue with the crime that we’re having in our city and with everything that’s still going on. I think allowing people a safe place to do drugs is not necessarily the right solution.”
Villalobos has had issues with his property being burglarized in the past, and said he would like to see the city and state focus on crime enforcement rather than overdose prevention facilities.
“You’re not solving a problem; you’re putting a Band-Aid on it. The real problem is [enforcement] of illegal drug use, [enforcing] all these criminal acts. People are still committing crimes, they’re still assaulting people, and there [are] little to no consequences. And not by any fault of the police department, because they’re trying to enforce things. But by the time it gets to a court system, you’re back out on the street again.”
But despite the pushback, some in the community see the sites as a step in the right direction. Ryan Brewer is the founder and CEO of Zia Recovery Center, and said he believes overdose prevention facilities could have a net-benefit if they follow the same model as other successful facilities found in other states.
“If you look at the data, the good safe use sites that are set up around the country, they are a link between the drug addict and good treatment. Sometimes it just takes some time for that drug addict to get through that phase to where they eventually go to treatment to improve their quality of life and get off the drugs so they’re not a burden on society anymore. I do think it would have a net-positive effect if it’s done correctly.”
According to the National Institutes of Health, studies have found that these types of facilities are associated with reduction in public drug use, and could reduce pressure on local emergency responders and healthcare systems. Brewer said while an overdose prevention site could help Las Cruces, it’s important that the city and state continue putting resources toward auxiliary services to help ease the effects of the opioid crisis.
“If they go ahead and do this, it’s going to be like putting a patch on a big leak. It’s going to solve part of the problem, but it’s not going to solve the overall problem of why people are turning to these drugs so heavily,” he said. “There’s a lot of addiction problems in this town. There’s not enough beds in this town. There’s not enough resources in this town. There’s not enough money in this town right now to help with the massive problem that we’re seeing.”
According to City Councilor Becky Corran, getting resources in the right places in a timely manner is important for helping the people that need it most urgently.
The District 5 councilor, who also works as a public health professor at Doña Ana Community College, said that she would like to see opioid funding be spent on harm reduction programs that could have an immediately positive impact on the community.
“I think that those pathways being immediately available and accessible and funded is what I’m hoping that we can invest in. Harm reduction and pathways to substance use reduction for people who want to engage in that process.”
Councilor Corran said that while she believes in the data that show positive results for overdose prevention centers, it could take time to set up a center for the city, especially when considering how the state would view the legality of such a facility.
“In our conversations about the opioid settlement funds, and there has been a lot of outreach to folks in the community, this was not one of the main things that people said was a priority to them. They really are interested in one-on-one harm reduction,” she said. “It isn’t the thing that’s at the top of the list, but I think we’re open to all things that will help people and help save lives, so that’s why it needs to part of our considerations.”
As Southern New Mexico wrestles with the ongoing opioid crisis, the debate on overdose prevention centers highlights disagreement within the community, and implementing such a model may hinge on finding common ground among divided stakeholders.
