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Gavin Newsom’s Next Political Test Is an Injection-Site Bill
- nullhack 4y agohttps://archive.ph/NxgqA https://archive.ph/NxgqA
- nvahalik 4y agoMaybe it’s because I don’t live in California let alone a big city… but it seems completely insane to me that the government would be involved in this at all.
- 8note 4y agoI imagine the government needs to be involved because it's federally illegal. Having the state have your back is handy. Otherwise, it's both safer for the people doing the injection, they are put in touch with people and tools to quit, and the needles are disposed of rather than being left on the street. It's a societal benefit to have fewer people with addiction, safer streets, and fewer hospital trips due to overdose/people being dangerous while high. Thus the government makers more sense as the organizer than anything else
- sammalloy 4y agoWhere I live, something like half of all addicts on the street are struggling with mental health issues and self-medicating to cope. If we can address that directly, it would greatly help.
- CodeWriter23 4y agoSeems like a rosy distraction away from the key driver of increased overdoses: the opioid epidemic.
- ch4s3 4y agoAs a New Yorker I’m reflexively skeptical about all things California, BUT I really don’t like seeing people shooting up on the streets. There are a lot of knock on problems and we’ve seen that prisons don’t fix this problem. I’m willing to try more of this, seeing the positive-ish results in other places.
- wheelinsupial 4y agoVancouver, Canada has had something called “Insite” and other safe injection sites since 2003. People still shoot up on the streets. Safe injection has helped to reduce overdose related deaths and to reduce the spread of diseases through dirty needles. Like anything, it’s not a silver bullet to solve the problem.
- ch4s3 4y agoI'm fine with small wins, especially if they reduce the burden on emergency services.
- grandmczeb 4y agoI live a few blocks from the safe injection site in SF. People shoot up on the sidewalk literally feet away from the entrance. It’s possible that fewer people shoot up on the street overall, but my personal experience at least is that it’s had no impact.
- ch4s3 4y agoI'd be interested to know if there are any stats on that. I also feel like SF is going to have a hard time moving the needle on this issue with any one policy change.
- Gibbon1 4y agoThe problem city governments have is all the problems caused by laws passed by state and federal politicians who live in 'nice upscale places with cops that run off anyone that looks dodgy' end up being an open in your face problem for cities.
- keepquestioning 4y agoFollow Michael Shellenberger for more insight on California's insanity. https://twitter.com/ShellenbergerMD https://twitter.com/ShellenbergerMD
- standardUser 4y agoThe insane thing is to waste endless money on police and prisons that fail to stop drug abuse while letting people die due to lack of safe injection sites.
- wusher 4y agoIt’s entirely possible to both not waste money on police / prisons and to not have injection zones.
- sammalloy 4y agoIt kind of isn’t. This has been studied regarding recidivism and drug use. Rehabilitation and "corrections" are anything but, and are often roadblocks for users trying to get clean, and typically make it more difficult to rejoin society. Due to the insanity of the current system, most people go in and get worse, not better. Harm reduction, on the other hand, cuts out that element, and helps both decriminalize and medicalize the problem. It provides easier routes for people who want to get clean and caps the drug addict to criminal pipeline.
- standardUser 4y agoEven if we don't waste money pretending we can "stop" drug use with cops and jails, we still have to pay for the costs associated with overdoses and the spread of disease and a black market. It's cheaper to give someone a clean needle and a test strip than to have them in an ICU bed.
- bandyaboot 4y agoWell sure, ignoring the problem is always an option.
- standardUser 4y agoIn case you're wondering, this isn't some new, zany California thing. It's a policy that's been used in big cities throughout the Western world and it both directly saves human lives by preventing overdoses and the spread of disease, but also puts drug abusers into frequent contact with people and services that can help them. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supervised_injection_site https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supervised_injection_site
- newaccount2021 4y agoThe site in SF is closing because the reality is nothing like the social engineering utopia you describe. Every service offered has only resulted in increased use, increased homelessness. Safe injection will increase drug use, destroy communities, increase crime.
- standardUser 4y agoCan you elaborate on the "social engineering utopia" I allegedly described? Sounds intriguing.
- sitkack 4y agoDon't feed the trolls.
- chizhik-pyzhik 4y agoThe research disagrees with you here. A 2021 review of past studies indicated that on average crime decreased in the areas near a safe injection site and people more often took up addiction treatment. https://sci-hub.st/10.1016/j.amepre.2021.04.017 https://sci-hub.st/10.1016/j.amepre.2021.04.017
- cavisne 4y agoThe paper actually claims crime didn't increase (which is different to decreasing). Some of the studies they surveyed at saw a decrease in crime. In the US it's obvious to anyone with eyes that cities that encourage/support drug use have a much worse environment (SF, LA, Seattle). Drug users are literally given free rides by neighboring areas into these cities.