May 17, 2023 – Jose Martinez spent several years unhoused, jobless, and trapped in a cycle of addiction to synthetic marijuana – a lab-created drug that affected his mind and behavior and is dangerous and sometimes deadly.
His life changed when the Bronx, NY, resident began recovery in 2017, which he credits in large part to what is now an overdose prevention site in New York City’s Harlem neighborhood – one of two official so-called safe injection sites in the United States, where people can use illicit drugs under supervision of trained staff to prevent death and illness.
The other is in the…
