Top prosecutors from across the country, including New York, Texas, California and Massachusetts, have thrown their support behind a Philadelphia-based nonprofit's efforts to open the country's first safe injection site.

Attorneys from Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr and Hangley Aronchick Segal Pudlin & Schiller filed an amicus brief Wednesday on behalf of 64 current and former law enforcement officials, who contend that federal law should not bar the nonprofit Safehouse from opening a safe injection site. The brief was one of several filed Wednesday.

Among the current top prosecutors who signed onto the brief are Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance, Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez, Suffolk County District Attorney Rachael Rollins, Dallas County District Attorney John Creuzot, Cook County State's Attorney Kim Foxx, San Francisco District Attorney George Gascon and others. Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner, who has long supported safe injection sites, also signed onto the brief.

“As law enforcement and criminal justice leaders, amici's objective is to maintain public safety; saving the lives and promoting the health of all members of the community is as central to that mission as preventing and prosecuting crimes,” the 27-page brief said.

The filing puts the prosecutors at odds with U.S. Attorney William McSwain of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, who sued earlier this year seeking to bar the site.

READ THE BRIEF:

McSwain's office filed a lawsuit in February, asking for a declaratory judgment that says safe injection sites—where heroin users can inject the drug under the supervision of medical staff—violate provisions of the Controlled Substances Act. The lawsuit is the first of its kind in the nation, and may presage the way federal prosecutors and courts will address an issue that is being debated in several cities across the country.

The Controlled Substances Act makes it illegal to “knowingly open, lease, rent, use, or maintain any place” for the use of controlled substances and has historically been used to prosecute houses where drugs were sold. The feds' suit specifically takes issue with Safehouse's stated plan to operate a “consumption room,” where medical staff would oversee heroin injections.

It is Safehouse's position that the site would help stem the recent increase of opioid-related deaths and reduce the spread of disease, but McSwain has contended that the site clearly violates the law. In announcing the lawsuit, he dismissed the notion that the law makes any distinction for doctors, nurses or others who do not sell drugs, but are there to provide medical oversight.

The case, United States v. Safehouse, has been assigned to U.S. District Judge Gerald McHugh. Although McHugh's decision is likely to apply just to the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, where the lawsuit was filed, it will undoubtedly have ramifications for other jurisdictions.

Numerous parties filed amicus briefs Wednesday, including several LGBT and public health advocacy groups, which supported Safehouse. A brief in support of the U.S. Attorney's Office was expected to be filed late Wednesday.

Ilana H. Eisenstein of DLA Piper is representing Safehouse. In an emailed statement, Eisenstein said the eight states, four cities and 134 individuals and organizations offering support in the 11 amici briefs set to be filed in support of the nonprofit was a “tangible demonstration of the broad community support.”

“We are grateful for the many individuals, organizations, and lawyers who have offered their own direct experiences and unique perspectives to explain how overdose prevention sites can mitigate the opioid and overdose crisis that has gripped Philadelphia and the nation,” Eisenstein said.

Regarding the prosecutors' amicus brief, the signers include both prosecutors and retired law enforcement officers. No current federal prosecutors signed onto the brief, but several former federal prosecutors, including former U.S. Attorneys Channing Phillips of the District of Columbia and Kenyen Brown of the Southern District of Alabama, signed onto the brief.

The brief contends that the Controlled Substances Act has never been used for prohibiting other health-related operations, such as syringe exchange facilities, or services providing naloxone, which is used to treat overdoses. The brief also contended that the sites, which it referred to as “overdose prevention sites,” led to fewer overdose death and helped mitigate the spread of disease.

“The class 'war on drugs' approach to drug control—an almost exclusive focus on aggressive enforcement of criminal law—has exacerbated the overdose epidemic,” the brief said. “This experience confirms that no jurisdiction can arrest its way out of this public health problem.”

The U.S. Attorney's Office declined to comment.