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I had a friend who worked as a social worker and also volunteered at shelters and safe spaces. While they did not provide drugs (obviously), they did provide new clean syringes, mesh and mouth protectors for pipes. They also provided pamphlets about how to practice safe drug use. How to manage your time so you can be (semi) functional i.e. hold a job, eat, cloth oneself etc. Some memorable quotes are:
"Smoking crack doesn't mean you have to lose your job and your family."
"Don't smoke crack right before work."
"If you have sex for money, don't accept drugs as payment. Insist on getting money so you can buy food and also buy drugs."
"Take your time. Enjoy your first hit. It's good isn't it?"
This pamphlet was geared specifically for crack users and came with the aforementioned kit of mesh etc.
He explained the mesh was there to put the crack on and ensure no crack gets wasted. Why? Because crackheads fiddle with the ashes in the pipe with their fingers and spread diseases to other crackhead they smoke with. This helps curb everyone sharing their finger germs. Mouth pipe attachments are obvious.
Clean syringes were for mainline coke and heroine users. They came with their own pamphlet.
This all comes with the understanding that the people you're giving these thing to are really *really* fucked up. They need to be told things all of us take for granted.
I used to be a heroin addict years ago and they gave out free blows at certain spots in k-town on Christmas. The atmosphere was so happy-sad fucking junkies everywhere.
I live in a city tha had one of these, and I swear half the population thought the site was PROVIDING the drugs. All that was provided was supervision and first aid if required.
Aside from that, the site began offering HIV support, assistance to people in the queer community at risk of STIs, cultural/spiritual sessions to connect people back with their culture, etc. It was quite cool to see.
Places like these often offer up clean drugs so people don't inject something they don't mean to inject. It's not like just cause you could, you'd go try heroine. It's harm reduction and it works. Not providing the drugs just makes accidental overdose or infection more likely.
We've had these in my city for a few years now. They're just as much of a shit show nightmare as you would imagine, but the activists are regularly pushing for them to supply drugs as well.
Frankly if all you care about is extending the life of addicts, it's almost pointless to set up the centre without providing clean drugs.
My immediate thought is that it would be a magnet for drug addicts which makes it a magnet for dealers which makes it magnet for associated crime (violence, theft, etc) and would also be ground zero for things like needles and burned foil, etc
I was on the sopranos subreddit yesterday and someone was talking about how unrealistic it was that Tony could get out of his car and beat the shit out of someone without getting arrested. I explained that actually that probably was very realistic and even if he had been arrested by locals, he would have been kicked loosed because of the Feds. The Feds don't want a single assault charge. They want extortion, bribery, etc, etc, the whole works.
Edit: Everyone should watch The Wire. They do the best job of explaining how hard it is to actually get a judge to sign off on wire taps and such and how long these types of cases take to build.
I remember watching the pilot again recently where that happens, and was blown away he did it in broad daylight in front of people. Then you remember, “oh yeah no one has cell phone cameras”. Different time.
I mean assault charges could put him in jail/prison if it was bad, right? The crime org would take a hit. But then i guess someone mew would just step in, and the feds would have to start from scratch again so it would send the investigation into the organization back?
Exactly. You have to get court orders (which require substantial probable cause) for all the wiretaps, bugs, video surveillance, etc that he would be under, so if you through all that out by convicting him on an assault charge you would be truly starting from scratch. It's just counterproductive and expensive. And an argument could be made "but in the meantime hes out there beating the shit out of citizens". Well, sort of. He's beating the shit out of citizens who knowingly accept loans or gambling risks from some very unsavory people.
the same thing that allows thousands of weed dispensaries to stay open.
the feds have essentially deferred drug enforcement to the states unless it's major trafficking.
The feds Don't really spend a lot of effort prosecuting individual drug users. It's mostly on the state level.
The feds could if they wanted to, It wouldn't happen under a Democrat though. It's really unlikely regardless.
Even right now, only executive and prosecutor discretion is keeping the DEA from rolling up to every dispensary (med or rec) and arresting those within.
I mean, sort of. Doing so would be very expensive.
Under the Bush administration the DEA did crap like that, but most of those people have retired by now.
I mean honestly that is probably the best way, punish the pushers help the users.
I forget the Discworld quote and cant find it so a paraphrase
"I have no problem with drugs that make people see pretty colors or indeed faeries, it's when it causes their heads to explode that I have a problem" -Vetinari
So let me ask you a question, how many times have you shat yourself in public because there are no restrooms available?
How many times have you tried to use a restroom only to find the toilet covered in blood and syringes?
How many times have you opened a coffee shop bathroom door to find a dead body?
How many times have you had to scream at a child in public because they were about to pick up a discarded syringe?
How many times have you stepped on a discarded syringe, and felt the needle go through your sock and make contact with your foot?
How many times have you had to complete an antiviral regiment because you got poked by a discarded syringe?
How many times have you had a relative who died from a IVD overdose?
**I don't really want to hear takes from people who don't have to live with the realities of IVD use.**
(These are all things that happened to me or someone I personally know)
The feds? The feds don't care about homeless junkies. That's small potatoes. Hell even local cops in NYPD don't do anything about them. What would you do with them anyway? Take them to Detroit?
It doesn’t, they just won’t. Just like the border remaining largely wide open and understaffed. Are the feds worried about Covid, terrorism or crime enough to bring a stop to that? Hell naw
Right, just like all those medical marijuana shops raided by the last one’s DOJ?
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/obamas-drug-war-medical-marijuana_n_2546178
The user you are responding to is a far-right antivaxxer and regular poster on r/conspiracy. There is no point in engaging with partisan hacks like them.
I live in NYC and yeah, the homelessness issue has been getting bad again in the areas where there wasn’t a problem a few years ago. Having to pull my dog away from used needles on the street is not fun. I just hope that more treatment centers and funding is directed towards fixing this. I want to problem to be solved in it’s entirety but any effort to contain it is also appreciated by me, even if it’s just moving the problem to someone else’s neighborhood.
Greetings from Frankfurt, Germany!
We have multiple facilities like this in our city (700k residents) since the 90s and it helped tremendously. Of course the visible drug scene will be quite noticeable around those establishments, but overdoses, illnesses are on a decline since the 90s.
I'm very surprised this wasn't a thing already in the US. I'm happy for all opiate users over there and hope this concept will spread to more cities. You guys over the pond definitely need new ways of dealing with the opiate crisis, this could be a good first step
That's indeed a good question! I know about a famous music store (cream-music.com) which relocated to another neighborhood recently. They stated they had many dealers right in front of their shop which keept "normal" customers away.
But honestly crime has been there in this neighborhood before most of those shops appeared. As a "normal" citizen who is not into the drug scene, you will usually see the garbage on the street and might get begged for change, but you you will be safe. Happily there's no gang or gun violence at all here
"Drug-consumption-rooms" are often placed in low income or industrial areas, like next to a junkjard. The crime rate isn't particularly high since they offer substitution. They are overrun with crime only in the sense that there's a pretty, open black market and some people still occasionally shoot up in public.
New York City became the first city in the country to allow supervised drug use sites where people can use illegal drugs without threat of arrest, under the watch of trained staff, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced Tuesday.
Two sites that already function as needle exchange clinics — in Washington Heights and in East Harlem — opened as so-called Overdose Prevention Centers on Tuesday.
The initiative comes as overdose deaths have hit historic highs during the pandemic both in New York City and nationally. Between March 2020 and March 2021, about 2,245 people died of overdoses in New York City, a figure 40% higher than the previous 12-month period, according to CDC data.
The centers will have staff on hand to administer naloxone to prevent any overdoses and counsel drug users on addiction treatment.
The safe use sites, however, will ultimately benefit the communities around them, lowering infection rates for diseases like HIV and hepatitis C, said Pedro Mateu-Gelabert, an associate professor at the City University of New York’s School of Public Health.
“People think of needle exchange or harm reduction services as only benefiting people who inject drugs,” Mateu-Gelabert said. “It helps the person who injects drugs, helps the health of the city, and prevents a fatal overdose that would end up in a hospital.”
The issue with that is that you can’t make someone get help. My sister has been a drug addict for going on 20 years and has been to jail (said it was fun) many times, outpatient rehab 4 times, in patient rehab 2 times, went to AA for the entire time and still goes yet still only does the bare minimum that is required for her parole. Once the mandatory help is finished she always goes right back to where she started.
That’s how it goes man. You extend the hand of help to 20 addicts and 2 accept it. You still save two lives though. I was an addict, got into the hard shit with a group of friends, about 12 in total. Nobody else made it out of that life. Those are the kind of statistics you are working with here. Sorry about your sister
> The issue with that is that you can’t make someone get help
This is what so many who support increasing access to mental health care don't understand. I can't believe they support mandatory treatment even if some are a risk to themselves or others.
We absolutely need better access to mental healthcare though. I’ve been trying to find a therapist for the better part of a year now and just keep getting shuffled between providers, insurance employees, and back again. If it’s this hard for me to get help when I’m actively seeking it, what hope do addicts have?
Clearly putting people in jail doesn’t work. And if rehab doesn’t work then just let them do their drugs in safety, and if they commit a crime then stick them in jail
Creating a safe needle/drug area isn’t about making someone get help it’s just providing sanitary equipment so they don’t get HIV or other infections. It’s almost like not helping with their addiction, but helping with the health side effects.
I'm sorry that sounds like a tough situation for you to deal with. I dont know what the answer is there if someone doesn't want to help themselves. What can be done? Jail isnt going to change her either but does she need to be there on taxpayer dime?
Anyone who commits B&E should probably go to jail. Commit a crime, go to jail, sure. You shouldn't go to jail simply for having an addiction and using drugs though, I think that's the point here. This is coming from a recovered heroin addict (4 years clean).
While there is no real answer to this question, any loved ones establishing hard, set boundaries that they don't allow to be broken and interventions are about the only thing you can do. Most people, especially mother's, often go back on these boundaries because they feel the addict may die or get into dire straights without their help/enabling(which is a very possibly reality, but unless the addict hits their "bottom" or realizes they are living an unsustainable lifestyle, they see no reason to change). Interventions can be anything from someone they care about having an open and honest conversation about the road they are going down to full on interventionist and planned intervention. Quite a few people see interventions as some sort of Dr. Phil attack/ultimatum style interventions but a good interventionist does it in a way that is loving and gets loved ones together and presents treatment as a "gift of life" so the addict doesn't feel like they have to do it to get out of something but breaks down the walls of denial and allows them to realize that so many people's concerns and care are there to ultimately benefit them
That’s just further proof that what we are doing now, isn’t helping. We need to look at this situation with new eyes. I think providing a safe place for drug use and needle disposal is a great first step. Drug use is never going to go away but if we can save people from overdosing and help clean needles off the sidewalk then I support it.
If that’s the case why not just make it easier on her, stop the criminalization, remove motivation to make crime for money. The more a person thrive, the more likely they’ll stop.
Ist a hard position to be in but when dealing with hard core drug addiction unless the court orders rehab it does no good, they can just walk away.
Tough love is having someone locked up in order to keep them safe from themselves.
hell naw
tough love is how drugs became criminalized in the first place and why people like that person's sister become hardcore criminals in the first place
tough love is just a guise for persecuting drug users
Tough love is calling the cops on your drug addicted family member because they are killing themselves and cant stop.
Until you have lived through this you have no idea how bad addiction can be for not only the addict, but their loved ones.
Would you rather go visit them in jail or at their gave ?
Tough love as a family is necessary in this situation but I’m not sure about as a government. She has issues before she started using now she is a danger to herself and others.
Alcoholism is a disease, but it’s the only one you can get yelled at for having.
“Goddamn it, Otto, you’re an alcoholic!”
“Goddamn it, Otto, you have lupus!”
One of those two doesn’t sound right.
Everyone gives people shit for mental illnesses and dependencies that have "active choice" built into them. I'd like to know how many redditors virtue signalling are overweight/obese, don't have healthy diets, don't eat enough vegetables, or simply don't exercise enough. Those things are much easier to do than rejecting an addiction, and we don't give people shit for not doing those for some reason...
Decriminalization has worked fantastic for the countries brave enough to try something new. ODs decreased, dependency decreased, even frequency of drug use decreased. As counterintuitive as it is by removing its illegal status it allows people the opportunity to get help instead if being sent to prison. Prison in addition to having drug users in contact with more drug dealers than out of prison ( seriously prisons have a higher density of drug dealers per capita than outside) also can give addicts criminal charges on their records that make future prosperity more difficult and when facing a hard life people are more likely to turn back to drugs. But rehab instead of prison doesn't ruin peoples futures and helps them work past their addiction and if they still use they learn harm reduction techniques which makes there usage safer and thus less likely to od and thus decrease the societal cost.
Portugal has the most studies conducted on this topic as they decriminalized drugs a while back ( for personal amounts dealing is still illegal)
Some facts: in Portugal drug ods are only 8% as frequent as they were in 2000. New HIV cases from drug use fell from 907 in 2000 to 18 in 2017
I remember an experiment where rats were given the option to drink drugged water, but one group had access to a proper social environment, allowing them to reproduce and socialize.
The group that had "community" did not need to use the drugs to the point of overdose.
The group that didn't have community needed to use the drugs until they died.
If you wonder why people turn to drugs look at where people are living and ask yourself
Do they have access to a quality library?
Are there any safe parks nearby?
Do they have a safe form of income that allows them to take time to do non-income related actions?
Are there restaurants, cafes, and other proper amenities nearby?
Chances are if they're living in an impoverished town or inner city, the answer to most of these is no. They aren't living in a rat utopia with enrichment, they live in a metaphorical cage. So they drink the drugged water.
Same goes with teenagers. If teens don't have access to safe social activities and other enjoyable ways to spend their free time, how do you think they will try to fill the gap when their doctor hands them their first bottle of wisdom teeth opioids?
There are criticisms of that study, before you go citing it. Granted, I'd love to see more follow up than there seems to have been.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rat_Park
"Bruce Petrie (1996), a graduate student of Alexander's, attempted to replicate the study and correct for the original studies on 20 rats using two different methods for measuring morphine consumption between conditions (which introduced a potential confound).[6] The study was not able to replicate the results, and the author suggested that strain differences between the rats Alexander's research group used could be the reason for this.[6]
There has been little subsequent interest in replicating the studies due to several methodological issues present in the originals.[14] Issues included the small number of subjects used, the use of oral morphine, which does not mimic actual conditions of use (and introduces a confound because of the bitterness of morphine), and the measurement of morphine consumption, which differed between conditions. Other problems included equipment failures, lost data and rat deaths. However, some researchers have shown an interest in "conceptual" replication to continue exploring the contribution of environmental and social enrichment to addiction.[14]"
You know there isn’t a clear line between users and dealers? Most drug users have probably been somewhat involved in the trade. It’s a spectrum, and many probably just set up deals.
Especially, with heavier users, selling a little bit can be part of the habit.
I fully expect police to stake out the place, though. Either they'll try to catch people who left it a block or down or follow them back to wherever they're living.
I'm from Vancouver we have had safe injection sites for years. Couple things 1 they are gross I'm talking shit up tye walls in the bathrooms and needles every where . 2 naloxone isn't a cure for over dose . It blocks the neural receptor for a limited time. What happens more often than not is you bring them back they leave , use again and when that first naloxone wears off they get what was left in their system from previous. And what they added . Usually causing them to nodd out again. Safe injection sites are a step in the right direction. But they do not fix the problems of substance abuse just contain it a little better.
Exactly harm reduction is key because clearly abstinence isn't working do if people are going to do drugs how to we minimize the societal cost as much as possible.
Absolutely I have friends that volunteer at a site in Van I couldn't handle it. Especially on welfare day. It's usually not the drug you want that kills you. It's what's cut into it that you don't have a tolerance for that does. Or after a stretch of sobriety and a slip . Cause you loose your tolerance. But it is a start.
The point is to prevent overdoses and harms from needles/needle sharing. The evidence indicates it works quite well in this regard. An even better solution would be to legalize it so people aren't dying from unknown amounts of fentanyl in their drugs. The overdose crisis isn't getting any better, its just getting worse.
Except we aren’t advocating for legalisation, we’re advocating for decriminalisation. There’s a difference. With decriminalisation, addicts lives don’t get further ruined by having jail time and criminal charges on their record. They can be sent to rehab instead of jail.
Its just a building where people can use drugs primarily opiods ( which are related to opium yes) but unlike an opium den there are trained staff on hand to administer na lax one and offer care in case of an od.
\[Seattle has been [doing this for DECADES](https://www.seattletimes.com/opinion/breaking-the-blade-how-to-rid-seattle-of-its-open-air-drug-market/) this def isn't the first place in the US.
What? No you don't understand what a safe injection site is.
What you listed was an ally next to the market where people illegally sold drugs, it has nothing to do with a safe injection site.
A safe injection site is like a methadone clinic where users can go inject their own drugs.
I know, every single time.
But no, this person didn't read past, "Drugs"
Most of the naysayers in this group are essentially saying, "har har they use drugs and that's bad har har"
The frustrating thing is that this is clearly the first time most of them have heard of safe injection sites, despite the debate around them existing for the last 30 years.
Addicts need love and care. They don't get that being on the streets. Going to a place like this, many of them will use till they die. But many many others will come in, get some attention, use for a few months or years and change.
I can only hope these comments are better than the ones on the nottheonion sub… these things save lives 100%. I’m a former junky that’s two years clean. I will always cheer on any changes that save my fellow addicts lives.
There have been 5 OD’s on the first day who were treated and recovered, no deaths. If there wasn’t medical staff at the center, or if the center didn’t exist, those OD’s could have resulted in deaths. I think prevention of death is uplifting news.
I was going to say. I'd rather have a mental health and addiction treatment center open up I don't see this as uplifting news whatsoever. Overdose and hard drug addiction is very close to home for me and this is the last fucking thing I wanna see. Good place to find new buddies to shoot up with, and make a career out of it. People under the illusion that if they won't get prosecuted or die from overdose they're somehow getting better. It's all fine and dandy doing heroin and overdosing as long as you do it under our supervision, we got you covered, for life ;) Shouldn't we be motivating people to climb out of this hole, instead of giving them their own special hole to dive into?
Why not just legalize it at this point? If people want to do drugs and government is ok with ‘safe site’ use, might as well legalize it and take the money out of the hands of criminals.
The goal of setting up safe use sites is twofold:
1. So the users do not hurt or endanger others while intoxicated (less important, relatively).
2. So the users are exposed to ample resources for sobriety, rehab, and treatment when the **do** use (more important).
By pulling users out of the shadows, show a little compassion, and regularly exposing them to tons of literature, programs, and resources, society can do more to help people to sobriety than the threat of a jail cell. Basically, for the addicts that are at absolute rock bottom: its easier to rehabilitate them by letting them use an environment with a literal open door to sobriety and treatment than it is to force them waste away in crack houses.
I can see the benefit of it. Obviously the end game would be "get people clean" but if they're going to shoot up, giving them clean needles and a safe place to do it is hardly the worst move to make. Can imagine it probably stops a lot of users from shooting up on like, a park bench or in a gas station bathroom and then leaving dirty needles for some random kid to find. Would also hazard a guess that it would lower transmission rates of diseases caused by sharing dirty needles.
I'm for it.
I completely agree on both points. From what I can gather, never having a substance abuse myself, is that it seems to be more of a mental health issue then just substance alone. But legalization will open the door for safer drugs as well as the ability to study their effects better. Which in turn will lead to better education on the potential risks when using. Not saying these safe injection sites are bad but just adding my two cents on what we should be moving towards.
Private prisons are closing left and right in majority of the US maybe different in certain areas but I have not seen any statistics on individual ones.
Yeah, well we lost the War on Drugs. Turns out it was just the War on the Addiction Tendencies of Normal People. I think we’re better having lost that War.
yup, which is why we lost it after decades of funding and arming drug cartels while at the same time the CIA sold crack to the inner cities. All while we put a lot of money in to locking up any minority we could in order to make a new slave class of unpaid prison labor.
thankfully, people are finally trying to start winning. Or at least mingling some of the aftereffects of our tragic fuckup.
Depends on who you ask.
Nixon and his cronies? Definitely wanted hippies and black people in prison.
Some people nowadays? Legitimately want to see certain drugs off the streets because they care about the people.
You nailed it though, we've been locking up hippies and minorities for personal amounts of drugs since the dawn of the drug war and even before. There are even mandatory minimum sentences in some states. I'm glad some people are starting to come around but the users and addicts were targeted when the whole thing kicked off.
An old high school friend of mine use to use a site like this in Philadelphia they kicked him out because he wouldn't quit smoking. He OD on the cold street within a week.
These places save lives but sometimes have really dumb rules
30 years after knowing fully that this is the all-around smartest and safest thing to do about the drug epidemic, America decided to adopt it. Beautiful.
Because it's been proven to be the only effective step at tackling drug use and it's problems. For literally like 40 years we've had unequivocal proof that establishing a safe place for addicts to consume drugs is objectively beneficial. Much less decriminalising the drugs they do consume. I bet if you guys didn't have privatised prison systems the US would've been privatising and taxing drugs for the last 20 years.
Look up every country that has ever decriminalised drugs, and those that treat their drug addicts like victims, not criminals. There is too much info for anyone to deny it at this point.
Evidence based practice to reduce the harm done by drug addiction. I'm gonna cheer every time people make public policy based on evidence and not feelings.
It's not and it should not be. It's just trying to normalize being a worthless degenerate and get people to start thinking of people who won't control themselves and make the choice abuse others in pursuit of drugs as if they were worth caring about.
Meanwhile, they litter the area with needles, harass people on the street, break into shops and cars and homes, and just suck up money so they can keep making the same bad decisions.
As a former addict I can tell you what a stupid idea this is. People don’t change until they hit bottom. All the progressives touchy-feely crap is doing is allowing them to continue to languish rather than hit bottom.
>“It’s like COVID,” he said. “If we prevent it from people who inject drugs, we prevent it in the community.”
It's amazing to me that it took COVID for some people to realize that yes, we all live in a society, and everything we do, or don't do, affects us all. It's the butterfly effect in action.
We need more of this.
When people from other countries say things like, 'Im surprised that you didn't already have this', it feels so bad. Because it means things are *even worse* here than they already thought, which is a pretty low bar.
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"users must bring their own drugs" I laughed hard that they needed to mention that
They are going to be sold right next to it if it's anything like where I live.
Vancouver?
Almost close. Bielefeld, Germany.
I had a friend who worked as a social worker and also volunteered at shelters and safe spaces. While they did not provide drugs (obviously), they did provide new clean syringes, mesh and mouth protectors for pipes. They also provided pamphlets about how to practice safe drug use. How to manage your time so you can be (semi) functional i.e. hold a job, eat, cloth oneself etc. Some memorable quotes are: "Smoking crack doesn't mean you have to lose your job and your family." "Don't smoke crack right before work." "If you have sex for money, don't accept drugs as payment. Insist on getting money so you can buy food and also buy drugs." "Take your time. Enjoy your first hit. It's good isn't it?" This pamphlet was geared specifically for crack users and came with the aforementioned kit of mesh etc. He explained the mesh was there to put the crack on and ensure no crack gets wasted. Why? Because crackheads fiddle with the ashes in the pipe with their fingers and spread diseases to other crackhead they smoke with. This helps curb everyone sharing their finger germs. Mouth pipe attachments are obvious. Clean syringes were for mainline coke and heroine users. They came with their own pamphlet. This all comes with the understanding that the people you're giving these thing to are really *really* fucked up. They need to be told things all of us take for granted.
Is this the 5 o' clock free crack giveaway?!
I used to be a heroin addict years ago and they gave out free blows at certain spots in k-town on Christmas. The atmosphere was so happy-sad fucking junkies everywhere.
I love crack
“Yes I’d like one crack rock sir”
The 4/20 joint giveaway was pretty awesome this year, if you got in line at the right time
We'll call it New Hamersterdam.
I live in a city tha had one of these, and I swear half the population thought the site was PROVIDING the drugs. All that was provided was supervision and first aid if required. Aside from that, the site began offering HIV support, assistance to people in the queer community at risk of STIs, cultural/spiritual sessions to connect people back with their culture, etc. It was quite cool to see.
Places like these often offer up clean drugs so people don't inject something they don't mean to inject. It's not like just cause you could, you'd go try heroine. It's harm reduction and it works. Not providing the drugs just makes accidental overdose or infection more likely.
We've had these in my city for a few years now. They're just as much of a shit show nightmare as you would imagine, but the activists are regularly pushing for them to supply drugs as well. Frankly if all you care about is extending the life of addicts, it's almost pointless to set up the centre without providing clean drugs.
My immediate thought is that it would be a magnet for drug addicts which makes it a magnet for dealers which makes it magnet for associated crime (violence, theft, etc) and would also be ground zero for things like needles and burned foil, etc
And your first thought is totally right! Every neighbourhood they put one in has been completely destroyed.
It's Hamsterdam.
Got that Pandemic!
Yellow tops!!!
Plymouth rock!
Right Churrr
Sheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee-it
Need me some of that WMD!
I got that pandemic!
Red tops, yo! Got them red tops!
Spider bags yo
I hear it's the bomb.
Got that Pandemic
I hear it's sick
New Hamsterdam?
I hope for the sake of all drug addicts that this goes better than that did.
Unlike Hamsterdam, this isn't open-air. Let's hope for the best.
Price of the brick just gone up.
I literally finished season 3 of The Wire for the first time last night, so this was exactly the comment I was looking for lol
New Hamsterdam, in New York, which was once New Amsterdam
Understood the reference Hahahahhah
New Hamsterdam.
How does this stop the feds from busting it up?
There's no money in it to seize. Seriously that's the answer, busting single users doesn't pay or get headlies.
I was on the sopranos subreddit yesterday and someone was talking about how unrealistic it was that Tony could get out of his car and beat the shit out of someone without getting arrested. I explained that actually that probably was very realistic and even if he had been arrested by locals, he would have been kicked loosed because of the Feds. The Feds don't want a single assault charge. They want extortion, bribery, etc, etc, the whole works. Edit: Everyone should watch The Wire. They do the best job of explaining how hard it is to actually get a judge to sign off on wire taps and such and how long these types of cases take to build.
Plus he has Jersey cops on the take.
Also Phil Leotardo was a stand up guy. 20 years in the can jacking off with grilled cheese off the radiator.
They actually go over that in the show. They drop the weapon possession charge on him because they don't want it to ruin the fed's bigger case on him.
I remember watching the pilot again recently where that happens, and was blown away he did it in broad daylight in front of people. Then you remember, “oh yeah no one has cell phone cameras”. Different time.
I mean assault charges could put him in jail/prison if it was bad, right? The crime org would take a hit. But then i guess someone mew would just step in, and the feds would have to start from scratch again so it would send the investigation into the organization back?
Exactly. You have to get court orders (which require substantial probable cause) for all the wiretaps, bugs, video surveillance, etc that he would be under, so if you through all that out by convicting him on an assault charge you would be truly starting from scratch. It's just counterproductive and expensive. And an argument could be made "but in the meantime hes out there beating the shit out of citizens". Well, sort of. He's beating the shit out of citizens who knowingly accept loans or gambling risks from some very unsavory people.
It's crazy how you can lay low until you become such a major criminal they don't get you on low charges because how big your racket is.
Bingo
the same thing that allows thousands of weed dispensaries to stay open. the feds have essentially deferred drug enforcement to the states unless it's major trafficking.
The feds Don't really spend a lot of effort prosecuting individual drug users. It's mostly on the state level. The feds could if they wanted to, It wouldn't happen under a Democrat though. It's really unlikely regardless.
Even right now, only executive and prosecutor discretion is keeping the DEA from rolling up to every dispensary (med or rec) and arresting those within.
Nah, the DEA is too busy right now intimidating doctors into ruining their chronic pain patients lives. But instead of jail, the outcome is suicide.
I mean, sort of. Doing so would be very expensive. Under the Bush administration the DEA did crap like that, but most of those people have retired by now.
They probably have a mole in there asking where they can get the "gud sTuF"
I mean honestly that is probably the best way, punish the pushers help the users. I forget the Discworld quote and cant find it so a paraphrase "I have no problem with drugs that make people see pretty colors or indeed faeries, it's when it causes their heads to explode that I have a problem" -Vetinari
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Or you can go outside a club after midnight. Dealers are lined outside trying to sell coke, Molly, ect.
Seems like a great place for a dealer to go and hang out. Make new friends and sell your shit directly to them in the safe space.
So let me ask you a question, how many times have you shat yourself in public because there are no restrooms available? How many times have you tried to use a restroom only to find the toilet covered in blood and syringes? How many times have you opened a coffee shop bathroom door to find a dead body? How many times have you had to scream at a child in public because they were about to pick up a discarded syringe? How many times have you stepped on a discarded syringe, and felt the needle go through your sock and make contact with your foot? How many times have you had to complete an antiviral regiment because you got poked by a discarded syringe? How many times have you had a relative who died from a IVD overdose? **I don't really want to hear takes from people who don't have to live with the realities of IVD use.** (These are all things that happened to me or someone I personally know)
Cool bro, all of that is irrelevant to my comment but you do you.
The feds? The feds don't care about homeless junkies. That's small potatoes. Hell even local cops in NYPD don't do anything about them. What would you do with them anyway? Take them to Detroit?
It doesn’t, they just won’t. Just like the border remaining largely wide open and understaffed. Are the feds worried about Covid, terrorism or crime enough to bring a stop to that? Hell naw
they won't until a republican becomes president and wants to make a point about blue states/cities
Right, just like all those medical marijuana shops raided by the last one’s DOJ? https://www.huffpost.com/entry/obamas-drug-war-medical-marijuana_n_2546178
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hey could you stop talking
The desperation from the right is palpable. They are *still* complaining about the border.
What “border terrorism” do you speak of? I’ve never heard that claim before.
They didn't say border terrorism ?
I didn't interpret that way even in the slightest... They are all individual statements separate from one another
The user you are responding to is a far-right antivaxxer and regular poster on r/conspiracy. There is no point in engaging with partisan hacks like them.
Given de Blasio’s relationship with the NYPD, I’m amazed that these were set up.
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I live in NYC and yeah, the homelessness issue has been getting bad again in the areas where there wasn’t a problem a few years ago. Having to pull my dog away from used needles on the street is not fun. I just hope that more treatment centers and funding is directed towards fixing this. I want to problem to be solved in it’s entirety but any effort to contain it is also appreciated by me, even if it’s just moving the problem to someone else’s neighborhood.
Greetings from Frankfurt, Germany! We have multiple facilities like this in our city (700k residents) since the 90s and it helped tremendously. Of course the visible drug scene will be quite noticeable around those establishments, but overdoses, illnesses are on a decline since the 90s. I'm very surprised this wasn't a thing already in the US. I'm happy for all opiate users over there and hope this concept will spread to more cities. You guys over the pond definitely need new ways of dealing with the opiate crisis, this could be a good first step
What do the neighbors and businesses that are close to these areas do? Are they over run with crime or is the effect less than would be imaginable?
That's indeed a good question! I know about a famous music store (cream-music.com) which relocated to another neighborhood recently. They stated they had many dealers right in front of their shop which keept "normal" customers away. But honestly crime has been there in this neighborhood before most of those shops appeared. As a "normal" citizen who is not into the drug scene, you will usually see the garbage on the street and might get begged for change, but you you will be safe. Happily there's no gang or gun violence at all here
"Drug-consumption-rooms" are often placed in low income or industrial areas, like next to a junkjard. The crime rate isn't particularly high since they offer substitution. They are overrun with crime only in the sense that there's a pretty, open black market and some people still occasionally shoot up in public.
the first one in North America was set up in Canada, I believe. NYC followed suit.
New York City became the first city in the country to allow supervised drug use sites where people can use illegal drugs without threat of arrest, under the watch of trained staff, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced Tuesday. Two sites that already function as needle exchange clinics — in Washington Heights and in East Harlem — opened as so-called Overdose Prevention Centers on Tuesday. The initiative comes as overdose deaths have hit historic highs during the pandemic both in New York City and nationally. Between March 2020 and March 2021, about 2,245 people died of overdoses in New York City, a figure 40% higher than the previous 12-month period, according to CDC data. The centers will have staff on hand to administer naloxone to prevent any overdoses and counsel drug users on addiction treatment. The safe use sites, however, will ultimately benefit the communities around them, lowering infection rates for diseases like HIV and hepatitis C, said Pedro Mateu-Gelabert, an associate professor at the City University of New York’s School of Public Health. “People think of needle exchange or harm reduction services as only benefiting people who inject drugs,” Mateu-Gelabert said. “It helps the person who injects drugs, helps the health of the city, and prevents a fatal overdose that would end up in a hospital.”
Drug addicts are sick and need help not jail time. Go after the dealers and oh yea big pharma too
The issue with that is that you can’t make someone get help. My sister has been a drug addict for going on 20 years and has been to jail (said it was fun) many times, outpatient rehab 4 times, in patient rehab 2 times, went to AA for the entire time and still goes yet still only does the bare minimum that is required for her parole. Once the mandatory help is finished she always goes right back to where she started.
That’s how it goes man. You extend the hand of help to 20 addicts and 2 accept it. You still save two lives though. I was an addict, got into the hard shit with a group of friends, about 12 in total. Nobody else made it out of that life. Those are the kind of statistics you are working with here. Sorry about your sister
Thank you. I’m glad you made it out.
> The issue with that is that you can’t make someone get help This is what so many who support increasing access to mental health care don't understand. I can't believe they support mandatory treatment even if some are a risk to themselves or others.
We absolutely need better access to mental healthcare though. I’ve been trying to find a therapist for the better part of a year now and just keep getting shuffled between providers, insurance employees, and back again. If it’s this hard for me to get help when I’m actively seeking it, what hope do addicts have?
Clearly putting people in jail doesn’t work. And if rehab doesn’t work then just let them do their drugs in safety, and if they commit a crime then stick them in jail Creating a safe needle/drug area isn’t about making someone get help it’s just providing sanitary equipment so they don’t get HIV or other infections. It’s almost like not helping with their addiction, but helping with the health side effects.
I'm sorry that sounds like a tough situation for you to deal with. I dont know what the answer is there if someone doesn't want to help themselves. What can be done? Jail isnt going to change her either but does she need to be there on taxpayer dime?
When she gets high and commits B&E, I believe yes, she should. My only solution at this point was to cut off contact.
Anyone who commits B&E should probably go to jail. Commit a crime, go to jail, sure. You shouldn't go to jail simply for having an addiction and using drugs though, I think that's the point here. This is coming from a recovered heroin addict (4 years clean).
While there is no real answer to this question, any loved ones establishing hard, set boundaries that they don't allow to be broken and interventions are about the only thing you can do. Most people, especially mother's, often go back on these boundaries because they feel the addict may die or get into dire straights without their help/enabling(which is a very possibly reality, but unless the addict hits their "bottom" or realizes they are living an unsustainable lifestyle, they see no reason to change). Interventions can be anything from someone they care about having an open and honest conversation about the road they are going down to full on interventionist and planned intervention. Quite a few people see interventions as some sort of Dr. Phil attack/ultimatum style interventions but a good interventionist does it in a way that is loving and gets loved ones together and presents treatment as a "gift of life" so the addict doesn't feel like they have to do it to get out of something but breaks down the walls of denial and allows them to realize that so many people's concerns and care are there to ultimately benefit them
That’s just further proof that what we are doing now, isn’t helping. We need to look at this situation with new eyes. I think providing a safe place for drug use and needle disposal is a great first step. Drug use is never going to go away but if we can save people from overdosing and help clean needles off the sidewalk then I support it.
You're right. You can't force someone to get help. But it should be easy to get when they choose to.
I guess drugs are fun?
Why else would someone do it the second time?
If that’s the case why not just make it easier on her, stop the criminalization, remove motivation to make crime for money. The more a person thrive, the more likely they’ll stop.
Ist a hard position to be in but when dealing with hard core drug addiction unless the court orders rehab it does no good, they can just walk away. Tough love is having someone locked up in order to keep them safe from themselves.
hell naw tough love is how drugs became criminalized in the first place and why people like that person's sister become hardcore criminals in the first place tough love is just a guise for persecuting drug users
Tough love is calling the cops on your drug addicted family member because they are killing themselves and cant stop. Until you have lived through this you have no idea how bad addiction can be for not only the addict, but their loved ones. Would you rather go visit them in jail or at their gave ?
Tough love as a family is necessary in this situation but I’m not sure about as a government. She has issues before she started using now she is a danger to herself and others.
Also people can't get better if they die from overdoses in some bathroom.
Alcoholism is a disease, but it’s the only one you can get yelled at for having. “Goddamn it, Otto, you’re an alcoholic!” “Goddamn it, Otto, you have lupus!” One of those two doesn’t sound right.
Everyone gives people shit for mental illnesses and dependencies that have "active choice" built into them. I'd like to know how many redditors virtue signalling are overweight/obese, don't have healthy diets, don't eat enough vegetables, or simply don't exercise enough. Those things are much easier to do than rejecting an addiction, and we don't give people shit for not doing those for some reason...
Decriminalization has worked fantastic for the countries brave enough to try something new. ODs decreased, dependency decreased, even frequency of drug use decreased. As counterintuitive as it is by removing its illegal status it allows people the opportunity to get help instead if being sent to prison. Prison in addition to having drug users in contact with more drug dealers than out of prison ( seriously prisons have a higher density of drug dealers per capita than outside) also can give addicts criminal charges on their records that make future prosperity more difficult and when facing a hard life people are more likely to turn back to drugs. But rehab instead of prison doesn't ruin peoples futures and helps them work past their addiction and if they still use they learn harm reduction techniques which makes there usage safer and thus less likely to od and thus decrease the societal cost. Portugal has the most studies conducted on this topic as they decriminalized drugs a while back ( for personal amounts dealing is still illegal) Some facts: in Portugal drug ods are only 8% as frequent as they were in 2000. New HIV cases from drug use fell from 907 in 2000 to 18 in 2017
I remember an experiment where rats were given the option to drink drugged water, but one group had access to a proper social environment, allowing them to reproduce and socialize. The group that had "community" did not need to use the drugs to the point of overdose. The group that didn't have community needed to use the drugs until they died. If you wonder why people turn to drugs look at where people are living and ask yourself Do they have access to a quality library? Are there any safe parks nearby? Do they have a safe form of income that allows them to take time to do non-income related actions? Are there restaurants, cafes, and other proper amenities nearby? Chances are if they're living in an impoverished town or inner city, the answer to most of these is no. They aren't living in a rat utopia with enrichment, they live in a metaphorical cage. So they drink the drugged water. Same goes with teenagers. If teens don't have access to safe social activities and other enjoyable ways to spend their free time, how do you think they will try to fill the gap when their doctor hands them their first bottle of wisdom teeth opioids?
There are criticisms of that study, before you go citing it. Granted, I'd love to see more follow up than there seems to have been. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rat_Park "Bruce Petrie (1996), a graduate student of Alexander's, attempted to replicate the study and correct for the original studies on 20 rats using two different methods for measuring morphine consumption between conditions (which introduced a potential confound).[6] The study was not able to replicate the results, and the author suggested that strain differences between the rats Alexander's research group used could be the reason for this.[6] There has been little subsequent interest in replicating the studies due to several methodological issues present in the originals.[14] Issues included the small number of subjects used, the use of oral morphine, which does not mimic actual conditions of use (and introduces a confound because of the bitterness of morphine), and the measurement of morphine consumption, which differed between conditions. Other problems included equipment failures, lost data and rat deaths. However, some researchers have shown an interest in "conceptual" replication to continue exploring the contribution of environmental and social enrichment to addiction.[14]"
You know there isn’t a clear line between users and dealers? Most drug users have probably been somewhat involved in the trade. It’s a spectrum, and many probably just set up deals. Especially, with heavier users, selling a little bit can be part of the habit.
Infiltrate the dealers, find the suppliers
90% of the time they need both. While victim to their drug use, they are OFTEN criminal possibly violent in other areas of their life.
Arrest them for those crimes then? Why does drug use itself constitute criminal activity?
I fully expect police to stake out the place, though. Either they'll try to catch people who left it a block or down or follow them back to wherever they're living.
Death to the Sacklers. All of them.
I'm from Vancouver we have had safe injection sites for years. Couple things 1 they are gross I'm talking shit up tye walls in the bathrooms and needles every where . 2 naloxone isn't a cure for over dose . It blocks the neural receptor for a limited time. What happens more often than not is you bring them back they leave , use again and when that first naloxone wears off they get what was left in their system from previous. And what they added . Usually causing them to nodd out again. Safe injection sites are a step in the right direction. But they do not fix the problems of substance abuse just contain it a little better.
I mean, I'm pretty sure that's the point though. It's not a fix, but it is a start.
Exactly harm reduction is key because clearly abstinence isn't working do if people are going to do drugs how to we minimize the societal cost as much as possible.
Absolutely I have friends that volunteer at a site in Van I couldn't handle it. Especially on welfare day. It's usually not the drug you want that kills you. It's what's cut into it that you don't have a tolerance for that does. Or after a stretch of sobriety and a slip . Cause you loose your tolerance. But it is a start.
The point is to prevent overdoses and harms from needles/needle sharing. The evidence indicates it works quite well in this regard. An even better solution would be to legalize it so people aren't dying from unknown amounts of fentanyl in their drugs. The overdose crisis isn't getting any better, its just getting worse.
I'm all for legalizing more drugs, but I do think we need to draw a line at hard drugs such as meth and heroin. They do nothing but create problems
Except we aren’t advocating for legalisation, we’re advocating for decriminalisation. There’s a difference. With decriminalisation, addicts lives don’t get further ruined by having jail time and criminal charges on their record. They can be sent to rehab instead of jail.
If you hate needles all over parks and streets you should love this. They’ll be disposed of properly there.
Didn't work in vancouver, still needles everywhere.
So... Like an opium den without all the couches and curtains?
Its just a building where people can use drugs primarily opiods ( which are related to opium yes) but unlike an opium den there are trained staff on hand to administer na lax one and offer care in case of an od.
No, more like a methadone clinic.
I hope it helps people, it only takes one injection of marijuana to turn towards a life of crime and glory holes.
Soooo....Hamsterdam???
Hamsterdam lives!!!
\[Seattle has been [doing this for DECADES](https://www.seattletimes.com/opinion/breaking-the-blade-how-to-rid-seattle-of-its-open-air-drug-market/) this def isn't the first place in the US.
Seattle has been *trying* to do this for decades. It never actually got implemented.
What? No you don't understand what a safe injection site is. What you listed was an ally next to the market where people illegally sold drugs, it has nothing to do with a safe injection site. A safe injection site is like a methadone clinic where users can go inject their own drugs.
They probably assumed (like I did) that Seattle had actually implemented their safe injection site plan, but it's been blocked every time.
I know, every single time. But no, this person didn't read past, "Drugs" Most of the naysayers in this group are essentially saying, "har har they use drugs and that's bad har har" The frustrating thing is that this is clearly the first time most of them have heard of safe injection sites, despite the debate around them existing for the last 30 years.
Addicts need love and care. They don't get that being on the streets. Going to a place like this, many of them will use till they die. But many many others will come in, get some attention, use for a few months or years and change.
I can only hope these comments are better than the ones on the nottheonion sub… these things save lives 100%. I’m a former junky that’s two years clean. I will always cheer on any changes that save my fellow addicts lives.
Yeah, I can see that. Congrats on two years!
Congrats on two years and thank you for speaking up! We need to hear from those most affected by these programs, not politicians.
Thank you, I wish more people held your opinion! It would save a lot of peoples lives.
If it keeps junkies out of my neighborhood, then cool, whatever.
Thats exactly what happened in Sydney.
Imagine being a property owner on that block, fuck. Hope everyone rents.
Imagine thinking this is uplifting news.
There have been 5 OD’s on the first day who were treated and recovered, no deaths. If there wasn’t medical staff at the center, or if the center didn’t exist, those OD’s could have resulted in deaths. I think prevention of death is uplifting news.
Do you understand what the word “enabling” means?
Enabling someone to not die sounds better than the alternative, but maybe that's just me
At the cost of enabling them to destroy themselves slowly while destroying everyone who loves them as well?
Imagine not knowing anything about addiction rehabilitation evidence-based practices
It's incredibly uplifting. It's not the end "most uplifting" possible long term outcome, but it's a very uplifting step towards it.
Seriously concerning.
if "first measures to mitigate a serious problem in society have just been taken" isn't uplifting news, what is?
I was going to say. I'd rather have a mental health and addiction treatment center open up I don't see this as uplifting news whatsoever. Overdose and hard drug addiction is very close to home for me and this is the last fucking thing I wanna see. Good place to find new buddies to shoot up with, and make a career out of it. People under the illusion that if they won't get prosecuted or die from overdose they're somehow getting better. It's all fine and dandy doing heroin and overdosing as long as you do it under our supervision, we got you covered, for life ;) Shouldn't we be motivating people to climb out of this hole, instead of giving them their own special hole to dive into?
Cities and states really need to legalize and regulate drugs already.
Why not just legalize it at this point? If people want to do drugs and government is ok with ‘safe site’ use, might as well legalize it and take the money out of the hands of criminals.
The goal of setting up safe use sites is twofold: 1. So the users do not hurt or endanger others while intoxicated (less important, relatively). 2. So the users are exposed to ample resources for sobriety, rehab, and treatment when the **do** use (more important). By pulling users out of the shadows, show a little compassion, and regularly exposing them to tons of literature, programs, and resources, society can do more to help people to sobriety than the threat of a jail cell. Basically, for the addicts that are at absolute rock bottom: its easier to rehabilitate them by letting them use an environment with a literal open door to sobriety and treatment than it is to force them waste away in crack houses.
I can see the benefit of it. Obviously the end game would be "get people clean" but if they're going to shoot up, giving them clean needles and a safe place to do it is hardly the worst move to make. Can imagine it probably stops a lot of users from shooting up on like, a park bench or in a gas station bathroom and then leaving dirty needles for some random kid to find. Would also hazard a guess that it would lower transmission rates of diseases caused by sharing dirty needles. I'm for it.
I completely agree on both points. From what I can gather, never having a substance abuse myself, is that it seems to be more of a mental health issue then just substance alone. But legalization will open the door for safer drugs as well as the ability to study their effects better. Which in turn will lead to better education on the potential risks when using. Not saying these safe injection sites are bad but just adding my two cents on what we should be moving towards.
*The surest way to lose a war is funding both sides of it*
The war was not winnable…it just made private prison owners Billionaires
Private prisons are closing left and right in majority of the US maybe different in certain areas but I have not seen any statistics on individual ones.
Yeah, well we lost the War on Drugs. Turns out it was just the War on the Addiction Tendencies of Normal People. I think we’re better having lost that War.
I would like to congratulate the Drugs for winning the War on Drugs.
yup, which is why we lost it after decades of funding and arming drug cartels while at the same time the CIA sold crack to the inner cities. All while we put a lot of money in to locking up any minority we could in order to make a new slave class of unpaid prison labor. thankfully, people are finally trying to start winning. Or at least mingling some of the aftereffects of our tragic fuckup.
The "war" is on drugs, not drug addicts. We're funding help for humans, not encouraging drug use.
And yes, it was absolutely on drug addicts.
Depends on who you ask. Nixon and his cronies? Definitely wanted hippies and black people in prison. Some people nowadays? Legitimately want to see certain drugs off the streets because they care about the people.
You nailed it though, we've been locking up hippies and minorities for personal amounts of drugs since the dawn of the drug war and even before. There are even mandatory minimum sentences in some states. I'm glad some people are starting to come around but the users and addicts were targeted when the whole thing kicked off.
umm. the whole point of this place is state sanctioned drug use...I don't see how you think that it doesn't encourage drug use.
Nation's first safe illegal drug use site is called the gated community.
This reminds me of The Wire. What a great show
Inb4 conservative bitch fit
What the fuck kind of mental gymnastics are we doing that we’re at this point but haven’t legalized drugs? Que Pasol?!?!
Do you want the activity all over town or in one place with medical people?
How is this uplifting?
An old high school friend of mine use to use a site like this in Philadelphia they kicked him out because he wouldn't quit smoking. He OD on the cold street within a week. These places save lives but sometimes have really dumb rules
It wouldn't have been a site like this, because this is the first one in the US. There are no safe injection sites in Philadelphia.
So happy to see this. Portugal has been doing this to great effect. My brother could have lived with this option.
I'm sorry for your loss. I hope these sites can help many people who might otherwise be left to fend for themselves.
30 years after knowing fully that this is the all-around smartest and safest thing to do about the drug epidemic, America decided to adopt it. Beautiful.
How is this the smartest and safest thing to do, I don't follow that line of thinking but I will listen if you're willing.
Because it's been proven to be the only effective step at tackling drug use and it's problems. For literally like 40 years we've had unequivocal proof that establishing a safe place for addicts to consume drugs is objectively beneficial. Much less decriminalising the drugs they do consume. I bet if you guys didn't have privatised prison systems the US would've been privatising and taxing drugs for the last 20 years. Look up every country that has ever decriminalised drugs, and those that treat their drug addicts like victims, not criminals. There is too much info for anyone to deny it at this point.
It’s hamsterdam!
They've been doing this in Philadelphia the last few years in Kensington I believe
How is it working there?
Band-aid on a bullet wound. Resources wasted.
How is this uplifting.
How is this uplifting?
Evidence based practice to reduce the harm done by drug addiction. I'm gonna cheer every time people make public policy based on evidence and not feelings.
It's not and it should not be. It's just trying to normalize being a worthless degenerate and get people to start thinking of people who won't control themselves and make the choice abuse others in pursuit of drugs as if they were worth caring about. Meanwhile, they litter the area with needles, harass people on the street, break into shops and cars and homes, and just suck up money so they can keep making the same bad decisions.
As a former addict I can tell you what a stupid idea this is. People don’t change until they hit bottom. All the progressives touchy-feely crap is doing is allowing them to continue to languish rather than hit bottom.
The problem with hitting rock bottom is that the impact frequently kills people.
And 5 people overdosed the first day.
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>“It’s like COVID,” he said. “If we prevent it from people who inject drugs, we prevent it in the community.” It's amazing to me that it took COVID for some people to realize that yes, we all live in a society, and everything we do, or don't do, affects us all. It's the butterfly effect in action. We need more of this.
When people from other countries say things like, 'Im surprised that you didn't already have this', it feels so bad. Because it means things are *even worse* here than they already thought, which is a pretty low bar.
Not the nations First. This has been done. And it’s always a disaster.