Ribbon cutting held for country’s first state-sanctioned overdose prevention center in Providence

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WLNE) — A ribbon cutting was held Tuesday for both Rhode Island’s and the United State’s first state-sanctioned overdose prevention center.

The center on Willard Avenue in Providence will allow addicts to use drugs in a safe space, providing injection sites and smoking rooms.

“The idea is that people are coming here and they are doing what they would be doing behind a dumpster, in an abandoned building, places where there is no one to respond to the overdose, and really our goal is to keep people alive,” Project Webber/Renew Executive Director Colleen Daley Ndoye said.

Mayor Brett Smiley said at first, he was skeptical of the idea.

“I struggled with…I think we’re indoctrinated into a certain mentality around sanctioning use, I think there is still a lot of stigma around certain types of drug use, so I questioned whether it was the right thing for my city, for what I knew about my lived experience but I kept an open mind, I did a lot of homework,” Smiley said.

In 2023, more than 400 people died from overdoses across Rhode Island, with Providence seeing the second highest rate of overdose deaths in the state last year.

Mayor Smiley said he’s now confident the center will save lives.

“People with substance abuse disorder are going to use, what’s different here is that they will use in a supervised fashion with medical professionals on staff so that they do not die and then there will be services wrapped around,” Smiley said.

The new center will offer a wide range of services in addition to overdose prevention.

“So they can walk in to the front door and they can say ‘I need a bottle of water’, and if that’s all they need, we give them the water, they leave,” Daley Ndoye said. “Or they can say ‘I really need to take a shower’, they can access or showers, our case management services, this huge range.”

Officials said the center should be open within the next few weeks.