This is my first attempt at a real wiki post on this site. Before I started the post, I was reading a NYT article on this topic, so I figured I’d give it a shot.
Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/22/us/gavin-newsom-vetoes-drug-injection-sites.html
California’s legislature passed a bill that would have legalized supervised drug-injection sites in certain municipalities. Newsom vetoed his own party’s bill, citing concern about a lack of “well-documented, vetted, and thoughtful operational and sustainability plans.” The supervision sites would allow users access to free, clean needles, as well as optional treatment.
There are already parts of the country that have legalized such facilities, including New York City and Rhode Island. Opposition to the bill has largely centered around a fear of developing megacenters of open air drug use around the supervised facilities.
To me, the proposal does seem underdeveloped. Our cities, mine included, need fewer drug users, not necessarily fewer drug overdoses. They need help to end their addiction, not to perpetuate it. At the risk of sounding “abstinence only,” opiates are extremely addictive. Nearly every account I’ve read of a former addict’s recovery involves their descent to rock bottom and below.
An earlier piece on the subject in NYT had the most interesting quote I’ve seen on the subject.
“Tom Wolf, co-founder of the California Peace Coalition, a nonpartisan group of people in recovery and family members of current or former drug users, said that California cities — and those across the nation — did not have robust systems that include the transitional housing and mandatory treatment that are needed to make supervised sites effective in the long term.”
Wolf is a former addict who lived on the SF streets for a period several years ago. Perhaps he has a point.