Absolutely important points.  Addicts dying or nearly dying will cost more than upfront treatment.   But it's not just about the cost, it's about who the costs are taken from.  A village is more than the addict, and I feel like the villagers who live in Federal Way would be unduly burdened by a safe injection site, precisely by the costs stated in the article.  We would absolutely improve the lives of addicts by providing a safe injection site.  We would absolutely diminish the lives of the villagers by creating a drug addiction community around the safe injection site.  The two groups are incompatible (regardless of the reasons or fairness of it).