State Rep. La Shawn Ford

A safe site for drug users has been set up in a vacant lot at Pulaski Road and Van Buren Street on the West Side. It’s a joint effort by the University of Illinois-Chicago’s Community Outreach and Intervention Projects program and the West Side Heroin Opioid Task Force.

Too many people are dying from opioid overdoses. Prevention sites would save lives.

Illinois are on track for another record-breaking year of opioid overdose deaths, most of which occur on Chicago’s West Side. Prevention sites, commonly known as ‘safe injection sites,’ keep people alive and connect them to drug abuse treatment.

By Tanya Sorrell and State Rep. La Shawn Ford