California advances bid to create legal drug injection sites
DON THOMPSONThe Associated PressSACRAMENTO – The California state Assembly Thursday, June 30, approved a controversial bill allowing Los Angeles, Oakland and San Francisco to set up places where opioid users could legally inject drugs in supervised settings.The move follows more than a year of legislative consideration, with proponents saying it would save lives and detractors saying it would enable drug addiction.The Assembly’s approval sends the bill back to the state Senate for final consideration in August, after lawmakers return from a monthlong summer recess. Senators approved a slightly different version more than a year ago, with no votes to spare.The idea is to give people who would use drugs anyway a location to inject them while trained staff are availa