It's called the Ithaca Plan, and it addreses drug addiction in a new way. The plan calls for a supervised injection site for heroin addicts. Ithaca Mayor Svante Myrick says the plan will foster a positive change. But, as TWC News' Philip O'Driscoll reports, the question for some is whether the end justifies the means.
"I have a son that had a heroin issue, and he is currently incarcerated," Maryanne Giacona, a mother and Auburn resident who works on grassroots efforts to combat addiction, said. "I must say, he is doing very well in recovery, but it's a sad situation."
Giacona's story is a common one. It also serves as a foundation for a new strategy called the Ithaca Plan. The goal is to prevent drug use and sales, reduce overdose deaths and infectious disease, decrease rates of incarceration, expand access to treatment, and save taxpayers money.
This is a harm-reduction strategy that I believe in and will not back down from," Ithaca Mayor Svante Myrick said. "This is a strategy that can save lives and give people a chance."
It's a strong stance in response to doubters of one of the plan's key components, a supervised facility where users could inject heroin under the care of nurses. This week, though, State Senator Fred Akshar called the idea a "very irresponsible suggestion."
But Myrick says some successful strategies were questioned at first.
"This is a strategy that sounds as outrageous as the strategy that we came up with to provide sexual education to teenagers," Myrick said.
Myrick and members of a task force backing the plan believe the new approach would cast the issue of drug addiction in a new light -- a change from criminal action taken against addicts to seeing it as a public health crisis in need of better forms of treatment.
"To think that we've had epidemics such as ebola, and we can have a state of emergency, and things happen just like that," Giacona said. "But yet, something so pervasive such as this epidemic where people are dying ... we are not taking action."
While the plan is groundbreaking, it's not an entirely unique concept. Local leaders say the same program has been successful in Vancouver. And while Ithaca's police chief does not agree with every detail of the plan, he's encouraged by a similar strategy in Seatlle that doesn't immediately send people to jail.
"With this program you get to design a specific course of treatment for the individual," John Barber said.
"We have to do something different," Giacona said. "And we can start having our own date in the USA; and if it doesn't work, you knock it out."
Myrick says the plan for supervised injections would need state approval before the city moves forward with choosing a potential site.
TWC News reached out to Governor Andrew Cuomo for his thoughts on Myrick's plan. He says he hasn't been briefed on the Ithaca Plan, but says that heroin addiction is a high priority for discussion in Albany.
Cuomo says those discussions will begin at the beginning of April and expects to have a comprehensive approach on heroin before the end of the session.