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Legislation would create safe spaces for using opioids

A proposal in Springfield would allow state-licensed drug injection sites to open across Illinois in an effort to reduce fatal overdoses amid a nationwide opioid crisis that has hit Cook County particularly hard.

State Rep. La Shawn Ford, a Chicago Democrat, introduced the measure last year, before the country's first injection sites opened in New York City. At a news conference Thursday in Springfield, Ford insisted that setting up safe spaces and bolstering other overdose prevention strategies would "save taxpayer dollars while saving lives."

"The war on drugs, where we told people to just say no, failed us," he told reporters. "We know that people are going to use, and we have to support them."

• For the full story, visit chicago.suntimes.com.

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