A little over a year ago, New York City inaugurated the nation’s first “safe injection” sites (SIS) – two taxpayer-funded venues (one in Harlem and the other in Washington Heights) where drug users can do so under medical supervision.
Allowing drug users to inject using clean needles in a supervised facility, according to proponents, is the most humanitarian way to “minimize the negative repercussions of drug use.” They contend that these locations will combat the nation’s expanding addiction issue, which claimed the lives of 109,000 Americans in 2022, a 44% rise over 2020.
To the amazement of few who comprehend these disorders, fewer than one percent of SIS clients desire therapy after they are able to continue drug usage peacefully.
The New York Times, Jumaane Williams, Jessica Rojas-Gonzales, NYC Health Commissioner Ashish Vasan, and other harm reduction advocates applauded the inauguration of the sites and quickly demanded that there be more of them in each borough. In fact, the City Council is proposing $8 million to support four new sites in Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, and the Bronx.
Drug addicts congregate in front of the East Harlem location in anticipation of the opportunity to consume narcotics in a supervised environment without fear of arrest or interruption. Few addicts seek treatment to overcome their addiction.
J.C.Rice
However, similar efforts in San Francisco and Vancouver have shown that there is little evidence that these places minimize the overall harm to the addict.
The effect SISs have on the surrounding community is certain, though.
Nearby residents have witnessed the transformation of their neighborhoods into open-air drug marketplaces, where dealers openly sell drugs like ballpark vendors and toddlers stumble over used syringes on the bus and at the park. Not unexpectedly, their complaints have received limited media publicity, and their inquiries to the city have not been effectively responded to.
Literally, the use of hypodermic needles outside of the injection site has become commonplace.
Just over a year ago, the Harlem injection facility was one of two that debuted in New York City.
Los Angeles Times images via Getty
Harm reduction advocates, such as NYC Council member Diana Ayala, Governor Hochul, President Biden, and George Soros’ Open Society Foundations, are the only ones permitted to sit at the “success-defining” table in New York City and across the nation. We, the neighbors, local business owners, parents, children, and taxpayers, are entitled to a seat at the table that defines success.
In Steeb’s case, she oversaw one of Northern California’s largest organizations for homeless women and children—Saint John’s Program for Real Change—for 13 years.
During this time, 78% of the thousands of mothers she served suffered with addiction.
They required assistance in overcoming their disease, not in maintaining it, in order to achieve productivity, job, and parenthood.
A playground near the injection site in Harlem covered in used needles. @harlemvoice/Twitter
Harm reduction advocates in New York claim that 500 overdoses have been reversed to date. But this single metric disregards any and all concerns for the tens of thousands of Harlem residents who meet drug addicts and dealers more frequently whenever they leave their houses. A parent who witnesses the commonplace yelling, screaming, unwelcome advances, and overdoses by emotionally disturbed persons in Harlem cannot be described as successful.
A video released in early September presents a new but unsurprising phenomenon: automobiles from across the country “camping” on the street near the Harlem East Block safe injection site. A adjoining tent features a young, pregnant, drug-addicted mother living with a man who appears to be her pimp.
Many leftists, including the governor of New York, have indicated interest in investigating “safe injection sites.”
Dennis A. Clark
Although the locations were designed for drug usage indoors, drug use frequently spills out onto the streets.
J.C.Rice
As they now have unrestricted access to a highly motivated and lucrative customer base, drug traffickers probably concur with harm reduction proponents that the experiment was successful.
However, taxpayers are frustrated. They are footing the expense for drug usage, as well as the cost of administering Narcan to revive overdose victims.
In addition, they will be responsible for funding a proposed “syringe buyback program” that allows drug users to return taxpayer-funded syringes for cash, so paying taxpayers twice for the same needle. Last Monday, the City Council approved NYC Health Department plan to establish a permanent needle buyback program intended to take effect in January.
Progressive billionaire George Soros is another high-profile advocate of injection sites through his Open Society Foundations.
AP
Due to their inability to pass a drug test and find employment, taxpayers already fund this demographic with subsidies such as TANF, General Assistance, and Medicaid.
Meanwhile, children and adults are exposed everyday to destructive activities and the perishing of their fellow human beings. What consequences will the normalization of fentanyl, a lethal poison, have on those who frequently see posters supporting intravenous drug use? We embrace smoking bans in order to protect nonsmokers from secondhand smoke. Why do we expose innocent bystanders to the lethal effects of dangerous drugs?
At the injection spot, stacks of needles and other drug paraphernalia await users.
Los Angeles Times images via Getty
Facilitating the use of heavy drugs is a lose-lose situation because, at best, it leads to stagnation. Not only do addicts lose years of their lives, if not their lives totally, but so do our communities as drugs flourish on the streets. This procedure is not only hazardous, but also expensive. The two Harlem sites have received $3.4M in government funding via the non-profit organization OnpointNYC, which claims to rely mainly on private donations.
Instead of investing in lose-lose scenarios, we recommend a win-win: expand treatment centers, not safe injection places; refrain from normalizing the use of toxic, illicit narcotics; and cease supporting behavior that increases human misery.
Michele Steeb is a senior fellow at the Texas Public Policy Foundation, where she heads its campaign to alter US and Texas homelessness policy. She is the author of “Red Door Answers: Combating the Homelessness Epidemic.” Jason Curtis Anderson, co-author, is a writer and political consultant.
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