“They get other people to support them and encourage them,” he told Fox News. “And that doesn’t help them. They want help. “
From opening to closing, drug users enter and leave the center, either with the drug in hand or fresh from their last dose. Addicts loiter outside the entrance, listening to music and asking for more drugs. Some are slumped on the ground, probably asleep. One of the citizens from a nearby block came out of his stupor and began to fight an imaginary opponent in front of him.
Now, Barreiro walks on high-alert to and from the school, ready to shield her kids from the scenes of drug abuse. She pulls the stroller’s hood as far down as it will go so her daughter won’t see the man lying on the sidewalk as she veers around him.
“Our young people are naturals. They have imagination. They have creativity. They have the joy of seeing this kind of thing,” he said.
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Barreiro, a lifelong New Yorker, and her husband have five children ranging in age from 2 to 11. She lives in midtown Manhattan, but travels to East Harlem several times a week to drop off one of her youngest children at the Graham School in Echo Park. a schooling program for the first years of training for children under 5 years of age.
The 40-year-old mother began sending one of her older children to school about six years ago and said she detected some drug abuse in the area. But the challenge was compounded after the nonprofit OnPoint NYC opened the nation’s first overdose prevention centers in November 2021, one in Washington Heights and the other across the street from the school.
Also known as harm relief centers, such places offer drug users the opportunity to shoot themselves under medical supervision in “drug intake booths” stocked with empty needles and naloxone, an overdose drug. Advocates say offering a life-saving environment and interventions will help reduce the growing number of overdose deaths, but critics argue that offering loose needles and a city-approved position to use illegal drugs will incentivize addicts to use them rather than inspire them to seek treatment.
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In 2021, OnPoint NYC opened two overdose prevention centers with the purpose of reducing overdose deaths by offering addicts a supervised position to use drugs. (Fox News/Teny Sahakian/Megan Myers)
Initially, Graham parents weren’t aware of the safe injection site operating within view of the school’s entrance, Barreiro said. But the center’s popularity among addicts grew over summer 2022, and word quickly spread.
“We’re like, ‘wait, what? Across the street from the school? This doesn’t make any sense whatsoever. Our babies are in there,’” Barreiro said.
On a brisk November day, Fox News saw about a dozen addicts hanging around the injection site. In warmer months, Barrio said she’d see double that when she got to the school in the afternoons.
“Once they were taken to 125th Street, there were other people there, drugged or looking for drugs,” he said. “They’re going to have a hangover doing what Michael Jackson did by crouching down. “
“It worries you like a user going through an ordeal,” Barreiro added. “And as a mother of young children, I have to hold them in my arms and hold them tight. “
Barreiro said Graham has stopped taking items outside on sunny days or taking toddlers for lunchtime walks because of changes in the community. Her children see used needles on sidewalks and have noticed other people pooping or losing consciousness, she said. They asked him “why?” they look like zombies. “
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Barreiro said her children are exposed to dirty needles on sidewalks and have noticed other people pooping or fainting. (Fox News/Teny Sahakian/Megan Myers)
“‘These are other people who just want help,'” Barreiro recalled in response. “It’s a terrible delight and a terrible thing to tell my son, ‘You’re taking drugs that make your bodies do this. ‘”
After she and other parents shared their concerns with the school, a monthly meeting was held in February between OnPoint staff and local officials to answer questions and share more information about the harm prevention center.
“I get it, you have to help them. You have to give them blank needles and give them a safe haven,” Barreiro said. “But you’re not helping them because eventually you’re not going to be there anymore, they’re going to overdose and die on the street. “
Since they opened two years ago, another 4,216 people have used the two Manhattan centers more than 106,000 times and 1,235 overdoses have been corrected, according to OnPoint.
The Graham School stopped taking young people for walks or holding outdoor categories after the injection site began attracting more drug users to the area, Barreiro said. (Fox News/Teny Sahakian/Megan Myers)
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Barreiro is no stranger to addiction. Her mother, an immigrant in an abusive marriage with a space full of young children, became addicted to drugs. Barreiro remembers watching her mother suffer from domestic violence and drug addiction until she ended up in the hospital and was given an ultimatum: Either abstain. or lose custody of their children. She immediately enrolled in a rehab program and has been sober for nearly 30 years.
“She’s my hero and my strength,” Barreiro said.
“She got motivated. She cleaned herself up because she knew what was at stake,” she added. The staff at the detox program “were excited about her coming in clean, they cheered on for that, not cheering her on to get high.”
Her mother’s story makes Barreiro think overdose prevention centers take the wrong approach to serving addicts and do more harm than good.
“Motivate them to avoid drug use, don’t paralyze them and inspire them to get high, because it will only feed their addiction,” he said.
Nationwide, overdose deaths soared 30% to 93,655 between 2019 and 2020, and have continued to hit new records year after year, according to the most recent data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). More than 111,000 people died from drugs in the 12-month era ending in June.
Barreiro said OnPoint NYC will close its overdose prevention centers and focus on motivating addicts to seek treatment. (Fox News/Teny Sahakian/Megan Myers)
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Despite overdose reversals at OnPoint injection sites, New York City recorded a record 3026 fatal drug overdoses in 2022, more than double the 2019 total, according to the Health Department. Bless you.
Barreiro believes OnPoint will close its supervised injection sites and find a way to help addicts that encourages them to abstain.
But at the very least, keep it away from children’s success, he said.
“Don’t do it where there’s parks. Don’t do it where there’s early Head Start programs,” Barreiro said. “Don’t do it where these little babies are seeing stuff. They shouldn’t have to see a man in a street with a needle on their hand passed out half naked.”
Neither OnPoint NYC nor Graham School responded to requests for comment.
Megan Myers is a producer and writer for Fox News Digital Originals.