San Francisco Officials Realize Handing Out Free Drug Paraphernalia Was a Big Mistake
The article criticizes the Democratic leadership in California, specifically focusing on San Francisco, for their handling of crime and homelessness. The author argues that the city has become chaotic, with rising drug use and homelessness leading to deteriorating public spaces. While discussing the harm reduction policies that allowed the distribution of drug paraphernalia to homeless individuals, the piece highlights the negative impact these decisions have had on the community. The newly elected moderate mayor, Daniel Lurie, acknowledges that these policies have gone too far and plans to roll back the free distribution of drug paraphernalia, stating that this approach has led to dangerous consequences for the city’s residents. The author expresses skepticism about the timing and sincerity of these changes, viewing them as insufficient given the ongoing crisis. the piece reflects a growing frustration with liberal policies in California, suggesting a shift towards a more moderate approach in response to public outcry against crime and disorder.
Why are leftists so incredibly insistent on doing everything but enforce the rule of law?
Seriously, it truly feels like the Democrats have never met a hardened criminal they wouldn’t foolishly defend to the death.
And in few states is this more pervasive than in The Golden State.
California has become the poster child of Democrats’ coastal elitism, and it’s the everyday citizens who are the ones paying.
This latest example of this comes from the once-great city of San Francisco.
The bustling and lively streets of San Francisco have become overrun with the homeless, as its once pristine streets become a wastebasket for fecal matter, vomit, and mounds of drug paraphernalia.
About that last thing …
It should go without saying that nobody — no parent, no child, not even pigeons or rats — wants to see piles of used syringes and pipes littering the streets.
And yet, that’s exactly what most people will see on their average walk in San Francisco, largely thanks to the inane decision making of the state’s Democratic leadership.
As chronicled by The New York Times, “For decades, San Francisco has been a liberal city where those using drugs found easy access to their substance of choice and a government generally willing to tolerate addiction.
“City leaders emphasized a harm reduction approach, believing that more lives would be saved by helping users to consume safely than by punishing them.”
Ah, “harm reduction.” Wouldn’t it reduce more harm if children can’t randomly stumble upon a pipe with fentanyl residue in it at the local playground? But this writer digresses.
Part of this inane “harm reduction” involved a policy in San Francisco that supplied homeless drug users with “clean foil, pipes and plastic straws” that were primarily “used to smoke fentanyl or methamphetamines, and the city spent hundreds of thousands of dollars per year on them.”
(CBS News reported that this practice of distributing drug paraphernalia has been going on since at least 2014.)
Yeesh.
San Francisco’s new “moderate Democrat” mayor, Daniel Lurie, thinks that enough is enough — though if this is a genuine epiphany or a rollback of a deeply unpopular policy remains to be seen.
He told the Times that he would announce on Wednesday a new policy “that walks back the free distribution” of drug paraphernalia.
“We’ve lost our way,” Lurie told the Times. “We are no longer going to sit by and allow people to kill themselves on the streets.”
He added: “This is ideology gone crazy.”
Well, gee, that’s a great sentiment. What the heck took them so long?
You actually don’t have to dig very deep to see why the Democratic pendulum is swinging hard towards the middle these days.
President Donald Trump’s resounding election win — and subsequent crackdown on crime — have given voters a stark juxtaposition of what it’s like to have leadership that actually detests crime, versus leadership that will go to any lengths to shield criminals.
Perhaps Keith Humphreys, a psychiatry professor at Stamford University, best summed it up to the Times: “The populace has risen up and said, ‘Enough already.’”
So with minimal due respect, good for Lurie for seeing the utter insanity of this “harm reduction” nonsense.
But it still feels like far too little, far, far too late.
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