Following in the footsteps of Canada, Europe, and Australia, Myrick hopes to prevent Ithaca from arresting addicts for shooting up and instead offer them a safe alternative: harm reduction.

"We've watched a system, I've watched a system, continually act as if this is not a disease," he said in a statement to the Ithaca Voice, "the way to treat this was incarceration – and I became the head of a system that continued to treat it that way," adding, "all this sounds radical but then you realize that the drug war itself is a complete failure."

The proposed site would be more than a sterile place for addicts to do drugs. The report, entitled The Ithaca Plan: A Public Health and Safety Approach to Drugs and Drug Policy, seeks to focus on public health, economic development, as well as harm reduction. The plan also includes community development and expands access to medication assisted treatments, such as those substituting methadone, according to a press release from the Drug Policy Alliance.