The Peace on Drugs is a Failure
It has become axiomatic that The War on Drugs was a failure. The oft-repeated formulation is that billions of dollars were spent, millions imprisoned, yet we still have a drug problem. But, has the opposite approach of the past few years worked any better? San Francisco –or as a recent book put it, San Fransicko – is the leader in the new policy of surrendering to drugs. They don’t just permit open air illegal drug usage, they encourage it. The Daily Mail documented what goes on inside a city-created, fenced-off drug consumption zone — land taken from UN Plaza, a public space near City Hall, and surrounded by the Asian Art Museum and the San Francisco Main Public Library. The Daily Mail’s photos illustrate that this approach is not working – users shoot up, pass out and scatter their needles.
In New York, Spectrum News just reported that the State saw record overdose deaths in 2020. Although the article implicates the covid pandemic as a cause of “deaths of despair,” overdose deaths were increasing when SARS-CoV-2 was just a twinkle in Dr. Zhi’s eye. As the CDC graph above shows, opioid deaths exploded from 2015-2019, even while prescription opioid use was decreasing.
One would think that when faced with an accelerating death rate, public health officials would apologize and try to change their approach. In New York, however, failure is a cause for self-congratulation. The Spectrum News article continues:
State Health Commissioner Dr. Mary Bassett: “I applaud the dynamic work of the Department’s team at the Office of Public Health and our partners at the New York State Office of Addiction Services and Supports for continuing to innovate the way we support New Yorkers battling opioid use and those who treat them.”
“Harm reduction practices have been a balm on the wounds of communities fighting opioid use, informed by tools of compassion, science, and real-world insight,” said Joyce Rivera, the CEO and found of St. Ann’s Corner of Harm Reduction and a member of New York State Opioid Settlement Fund. “Thanks to the State Department of Health’s reporting and their overall efforts to build on the compassionate basis for community work, our harm reduction pioneers have the global data needed to continually optimize life-saving programs.
Instead of platitudes, these people need to acknowledge their failure and re-examine their methods. In particular, the recent shift to ‘Harm Reduction’ has made the situation worse, as graphically illustrated in San Francisco.
Harm reduction has many facets, but its essence is explained on the website of George Soros’ Open Society Foundation: “Harm reduction refers to an approach to services and policy that protects people who use illegal drugs and their communities. Unlike approaches that insist that people stop using drugs, harm reduction recognizes that many people are not willing or able to abstain… This includes legal empowerment to increase access to justice for people who use currently illegal substances and to decrease police harassment.”
In other words, there is no such thing as unacceptable behavior. Using fentanyl and defecating in the street is totally acceptable. There are no consequences. My idea of compassion is to coerce people to change those behaviors. In addition, compassion must be shown to the other inhabitants of the city. A harm reductionist’s idea of compassion, on the other hand, is to give addicted people more drugs, paraphernalia, and protected spaces to make it easier for them to continue their lifestyle, while making the city unlivable for others.
Visit San Francisco and see for yourself. But, if you can’t visit the City by the Bay, don’t worry. It’s coming to a city near you.
EVERYTHING IS A BUSINESS MODEL.. HOW MANY US GOVERNMENT ENTITES, HOW MANY CHURCHES, HOW MANY CORPORATIONS ARE MAKING MONEY OFF THE WARS ON POVERTY, DRUGS, TERRORIST’S..
FOLLOW THE MONEY AND THE PSYCHOPATHS WHO JUST WANT TO WATCH IT BURN BABY BURN!!!
Guess you never understood what was going in w the Govt. There was never any intent to “win” the “Wars” in poverty, drugs, or terrorism.
The manufactured “crisis” at the US southern border and the baiting of the Russians in Ukraine are similar operations, as were the Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. And now Syria and Africa.
These are continuous government revenue streams and excuses to expand government intrusion into Americans’ lives. Yet the military is crying over their lack of/insufficient budget.
Where’s the money going?
It is NOT going to any process to shore up the US infrastructure(the very name infrastructure has been made an absurd tool), nor is it going to any effort or plan to help the American people, who are paying for all of this. You know what kind of people the political class are-All sociopaths and psychopaths. Everything they do benefits them.
They recognize and seek each other out. And control much of our lives and professions.
We just pay for it all.
Humans create bureaucracies that deface human existence. Once we make a homogeneous culture inimical to humans, where do we go? Why do we worship the ‘bots? We do, you know.