Fox News Columnist: The surprising thing about San Francisco's drug centers champions forget
Supervised drug-use sites alone will not end drug deaths
PUBLIUS SPECIAL GUEST: Mary Theroux, is director of the documentary Beyond Homeless: Finding Hope. Mary is the Chairman and Chief Executive of the Independent Institute.
Drugs are no longer part of a peace and love culture; they destroy lives and communities. We see this every day in San Francisco, where homelessness, crime and squalor – much of it drug-related – have taken over city streets.
According to the Office of the Surgeon General, more than 27 million people in the United States report "they are using illicit drugs or misusing prescription drugs." The annual economic impact of illicit drug use is estimated at $193 billion. The human impact is even more tragic, with nearly 107,000 deaths from "drug-involved overdose" in 2021 alone, the latest year for which the National Institute on Drug Abuse has statistics. The data for 2022, when it's released, will be no better. And this year will probably top that.
The alarming spike in deaths from illicit drugs and prescription opioids is sparking increased interest in a European solution to drug abuse: establishing supervised drug-use centers where addicts can safely get their fix without fear of overdosing or receiving fentanyl-tainted drugs.
Several states, including Colorado, Nevada and New Mexico, are considering similar proposals. A nonprofit called OnPoint NYC operates two sites in New York City. Rhode Island, the first state to approve such sites (in 2020), will open its first location early next year.
The Europeans ended their widespread drug scenes when they recognized casual drug use as a seriously destructive societal force, implementing measures to end them while providing real help to the addicted.
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PLUG FILM: Beyond Homeless: Finding Hope
Beyond Homeless: Finding Hope provides a clear outline, rooted in peer-reviewed research, of alternative approaches that result in actual, radical declines in homelessness, and a path for those experiencing homelessness to transform their lives and achieve their full potential."
BIO: Mary is the Chairman and Chief Executive of the Independent Institute. She serves on the National Advisory Board of The Salvation Army and has been a director of nine corporations and three foundations. Her business success has been chronicled in Business Week, Forbes, Savvy, Los Angeles Times, and San Francisco Chronicle. She has authored dozens of policy articles, is co-author of the policy report and upcoming book Beyond Homeless, and produced the accompanying documentary, “Beyond Homeless: Finding Hope.”
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Mary Theroux, is director of the documentary Beyond Homeless: Finding Hope. Mary is the Chairman and Chief Executive of the Independent Institute.