3A THE DAILY ASTORIAN • WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 5, 2018 Cities can’t prosecute for sleeping on streets Appeals court sides with the homeless By REBECCA BOONE Associated Press BOISE, Idaho — Cit- ies can’t prosecute people for sleeping on the streets if they have nowhere else to go because it amounts to cruel and unusual punishment, a federal appeals court said Tuesday. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals sided with six homeless Boise, Idaho, res- idents who sued the city in 2009 over a local ordinance that banned sleeping in public spaces. The ruling could affect several other cities across the West that have similar laws. It comes as many places across the West Coast are struggling with homelessness brought on by rising housing costs and income inequality. When the Boise lawsuit was filed, attorneys for the homeless residents said as many as 4,500 people didn’t have a place to sleep in Ida- ho’s capital city and only about 700 available beds or mats were in homeless shel- ters. The case bounced back and forth in the courts for years, and Boise modified its rules in 2014 to say homeless residents couldn’t be prose- cuted for sleeping outside on nights when the local shelters were full. But that didn’t solve the Adam Cotterell/Boise State Public Radio The entrance to an alley known as Cooper Court, a homeless camp in Boise, Idaho. problem, the attorneys said, because Boise’s shelters limit the number of days that home- less residents can stay. Two of the city’s three shelters require some form of religious par- ticipation for some programs, making those shelters unsuit- able for people with different beliefs, the homeless residents said. The three-judge panel for the 9th Circuit found that the shelter rules meant homeless people would still be at risk of prosecution even on days when beds were left open. The judges also said the religious programming woven into some shelter programs was a problem. “A city cannot, via the threat of prosecution, coerce an individual to attend reli- gion-based treatment pro- grams consistently with the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment,” Judge Marsha Berzon wrote. The biggest issue was that the city’s rule violated the U.S. Constitution’s Eighth Amendment against cruel and unusual punishment, the court found. Berzon wrote that in essence, the Eighth Amend- ment does three things: It lim- its the type of punishment the government can impose, it prohibits punishments that are grossly disproportionate to the severity of the crime, and it limits what the government can criminalize. That third limitation is per- tinent in the Boise case, Ber- zon wrote. “As a result, just as the state may not criminalize the state of being ‘homeless in pub- lic places,’ the state may not ‘criminalize conduct that is an unavoidable consequence of being homeless — namely sit- ting, lying, or sleeping on the streets,’” Berzon wrote. Major opioid maker to pay for overdose-antidote development A low-cost nasal spray By GEOFF MULVIHILL Associated Press A company whose pre- scription opioid marketing practices are being blamed for sparking the addiction and overdose crisis says it’s help- ing to fund an effort to make a lower-cost overdose antidote. OxyContin maker Pur- due Pharma announced today that it’s making a $3.4 million grant to Harm Reduction Ther- apeutics, a Pittsburgh-based nonprofit, to help develop a low-cost naloxone nasal spray. The announcement comes as lawsuits from local govern- ments blaming Purdue, based in Stamford, Connecticut, and other companies in the drug industry for using deceptive marketing practices to encour- age heavy prescribing of the powerful and addictive pain- killers. Last week, the number of lawsuits against the indus- try being overseen by a federal judge topped 1,000. The Cleveland-based judge, Dan Polster, is pushing the industry to settle with the plaintiffs — mostly local gov- ernments and Native Amer- ican tribes — and with state governments, most of which have sued in state court or are conducting a joint investiga- tion. Hundreds of other local governments are also suing in state courts across the country. The sides have had regu- lar settlement discussions, but it’s not clear when a deal might be struck in the case, which is complicated by the number of parties and questions on how to assign blame. AP Photo/Douglas Healey Purdue Pharma, whose prescription opioid marketing practices are being blamed for sparking a nationwide overdose and addiction crisis, says it’s helping to fund an effort to make a lower-cost overdose antidote. ‘This grant is one example of the meaningful steps Purdue is taking to help address opioid abuse in our communities.’ Purdue President and CEO Craig Landau The Centers for Dis- ease Control and Prevention reported that drug overdoses killed a record 72,000 Ameri- cans last year. The majority of the deaths involved opioids. But a growing number of them are from illicit synthetic drugs, including fentanyl, rather than prescription opioids such as OxyContin or Vicodin. Governments are asking for changes in how opioids are marketed, and for help pay- ing for treatment and the costs of ambulance runs, child wel- fare systems, jails and other expenses associated with the opioid crisis. Polster is expected to rule in the coming weeks on motions from drugmakers, distribu- tors and pharmacies to dis- miss the claims. Trials in some of the cases — being used to test issues common to many of them — are now scheduled to begin in September 2019. Purdue agreed to pay $634 million in fines back in 2007 to settle charges that the com- pany downplayed the risk of addiction and abuse of its blockbuster painkiller Oxy- Contin starting in the 1990s. It’s facing similar accusa- tions again. Earlier this year, the pri- vately held company stopped marketing OxyContin to doctors. The naloxone grant is a way the company can show it’s trying to help stem the damage done by opioids. “This grant is one example of the meaningful steps Purdue is taking to help address opioid abuse in our communities,” Purdue Presi- dent and CEO Craig Landau said in a statement. Naloxone is seen as one major piece in overdose pre- vention strategies. Over the past several years, most states have eased access to the anti- dote for laypeople. First responders, drug users and others have taken to carrying naloxone to reverse overdoses. But the price of the drug has been a problem for state and local governments. Pittsburgh-based Harm Reduction Therapeutics says it is trying to get its version to the market within two years. “Combating the ongoing crisis of opioid addiction will require innovative approaches to both prevention and med- ication-assisted treatment,” Harm Reduction co-founder and CEO Michael Hufford said in a statement, “but it all starts with making sure lives are not lost from overdose.” Welcome Back to Church Sunday & Street Picnic In other words, as long as there isn’t an option for sleep- ing indoors, the government can’t criminalize homeless people for sleeping outside, Consult a PROFESSIONAL Q: How can I find Steve Putman Medicare Products that I am Q: Now pregnant, my gums are more sensitive and bleed more easily. Why? e body during pregnancy A: Th is going through many JEFFREY M. 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