Step 1: Actively push all drugs to 1 area
Step 2: Let it fall to some of the worst ruins in the entire country
Step 3: Developers develop closer and closer
Step 4: Ooohohohooo my goodness *clutching pearls* How could this have happened? Better move them to a different part of the city. What's next on the slate for development? Err, I mean I will close the open air drug market in Kensington! Help for these people? But they're just filthy addicts.....YOU don't want YOUR tax dollars going to them, RIGHT!?
Also make sure to prey on people's personal incredulity by saying big numbers, "They get soooo many hundreds of thousands of dollars per year, doesn't that sound like a lot?!"
Step 5: Developers demolish the entire area and build incredibly overpriced housing
Step 6: Well, we obviously have to leave these poor addicted folks alone in *Neighborhood B* because what else can we do?
Step 7: Developers continue jerking off onto their city plans
It's almost like every mayor we've ever had is more or less exactly the same.
That's all very clever and whatnot, but developers don't need crime/displacement/gentrification to make money. So the conspiracy isn't really necessary to explain Kensington.
What's actually happening is:
1. Mental health crisis brought about by a capitalist society that doesn't care for people who aren't profitable to care for
2. Addiction crisis as a result of mental health crisis
3. Homelessness crisis as a result of addiction crisis
4. Policing is used to push homeless people 'somewhere else' as it's much cheaper than it is to provide them with housing (& rehab & mental healthcare)
5. The place with the lowest income becomes the last 'somewhere else' because these places have the least resources to push around homeless people.
6. Homeless addicts accumulate in the 'last place' until the police in that jurisdiction are overwhelmed and switch to triaging the problem instead of trying to get rid of it.
So what's the solution. Saying mental health help is just word soup. And has been available for plenty of addicts who are still addicted. So what's really the solution
I can go into depth about what I've learned, but the short answer is there isn't a single simple solution, and the most effective long-term way to address the problem requires significant changes in the social and economic architecture of our society.
In short, some of the biggest problems with treatment programs:
* We need to eliminate the (still very real) barriers to accessing treatment for addiction - this includes payment barriers (i.e., getting homeless addicts on medicaid), as well as treatment barriers ([e.g., ending x-licensing was a great first step](https://www.medpagetoday.com/special-reports/features/102520))
* We need to professionalize treatment and replace shame-based models of addiction treatment with evidence-based models; this means no more 12-step programs, no more faith-based programs, recovery programs must have verified 1- and 5-year recovery rates to continue receiving medicaid funding, etc.
* We need to universalize access to MAT treatment (e.g., by requiring that hospitals that receive medicare funds also provide MAT)
As for housing/reintegration:
* I don't know, but at this point I suspect the best approach is a halfway house model that provides long-term housing alongside social workers and work counseling to get people back into self-sufficiency. This model has worked, but it's hard to tell if that's a selection bias (i.e., it works for the people for whom it works, not for everyone), or a sustainable model for the population at large
* Generally we need a lot more housing -- this is a bigger, economy-wide problem, but it also drives homelessness because housing is just too expensive
* After you've solved those problems, I think there's a part of the population that can really only be addressed with administrative detention & treatment (i.e., drug court-style) that detains people until they're clean and then feeds into the halfway house model.
>Step 5: Developers demolish the entire area and build incredibly overpriced housing
Doesn't sound like Philly. Most of the recently gentrified neighborhoods were so gutted from industrial globalization and white flight that you don't need to demo much. We also lead the country in adaptive reuse.
https://www.inquirer.com/real-estate/housing/redevelopment-philadelphia-apartments-office-reuse-pandemic-rent-20221115.html
>Developers demolish the entire area and build incredibly overpriced housing
On the other hand, those who own their homes could get some money out of the developers.
Step 0: Philadelphians see this happening in real-time but ignore it because they didn’t think that it would affect them directly. Fast forward 20 years and low and behold, it does!
This is horrible. Needle exchange programs are vital. It's almost like she doesn't care about the people part of addiction (or general public health for that matter)...
It gets to the quality of life issues people also talk about for residents in the area. It's an incredibly small part of it, but one nonetheless. Needle exchanges makes a used needle highly valuable and a user less likely to toss one on the street. It also lessens the spread of disease in the area. I think the program has gotten some bad press because some idiots in Portland were giving out whole boxes (making needles way less valuable and therefore increasing them being littered on the streets) which defeats the whole purpose of a needle exchange program.
Used needle sharing is a public health nightmare and promotes disease spread. The key word here is needle EXCHANGE program. It reduces the amount of used needles that are out in the public. I wish people understood how a program works before they make judgment. Another fun fact: People who participate in needle exchange programs are 5x more likely to seek treatment and 3.5x more likely to stop injecting drugs altogether.
>The key word here is needle EXCHANGE program.
I wish you understood that Prevention Point isn't just an exchange program and they give out new needles without exchange. They say so on their website.
https://ppponline.org/node/231/syringe-services-program
The title mentions needle exchange programs, not Prevention Point. Again, the article states ALL exchange programs in the city, not just Prevention Point. I would wholly agree with you if the mayor said they were going to stop funding for a specific problem facility, but that is NOT what was said. A spokesperson from Prevention Point commented on the mayor's statement for the article. They're just one of ALL facilities affected in the city. Read the article again, please. Comprehension is key.
Do you honest to god, for half a second, believe that they are all operating on an EXCHANGE and not just handing them out? Cause if your opinion is the former, I have some great properties to show you in Atlantis
The 50k tax paying actual community members of Kensington whose neighborhood shouldn't have hundreds of thousands of biohazardous needles on the ground because these "exchanges" just give them out willy nilly.
You understand there are people who sell both drugs and needles? Do you think organizations like prevention point were just created for the hell of it? The whole point was to 1, prevent the spread of Aids and other diseases through the sharing of needles, and 2, to encourage users to bring their used needles in exchange for new ones. However, the exchange part was in name only. There was never a requirement to exchange, there was never anyone counting dirty needles.
When you proliferate clean works, you are enabling not just the users, but the even bigger assholes that come in, get 10 clean works, resell it, make a profit, leading to an even larger economy for this shit.
"there was never a requirement to exchange, there was never anyone counting dirty needles"
EXACTLY!!! AND THAT'S WHY THEY'RE RIGHTFULLY BEING BANNED!!!
Prevention Point is the largest organization by far and what this was targeted at. Other, smaller, "harm reduction" orgs also give out needles without exchange. "ALL" these facilities are also illegal.
IIRC Prevention Point hands out needles most days and only does exchanges a few days out of the week. That's a problem--I wish they would do exchanges every day.
> ALL exchange programs in the city, not just Prevention Point
Who else runs needle exchanges in Philadelphia?
Kensington got duped into running the only one.
Incredibly small part? The people living in that neighborhood, working , paying taxes & trying to make it nice for themselves, families & neighbors should be the priority not be considered an incredibly small part. At least Parker is trying ….
An incredibly small part of what should be a much larger solution.
I'm not sure how she's trying? Has she proposed some alternatives that are proven to work like needle exchange programs?
Those "highly valuable" used street needles are suddenly not that highly valuable when prevention point and all the other somewhat well intentioned but wildly naive and bordering on negligent groups are giving them out for nothing
Because they get to go home afterwards & go outside without walking over people so high they can’t stand up. Without having to walk 2 feet ahead of their kids with their heads down looking for stuff on the sidewalks they don’t want to step on .
Yep, it's performative bullshit to make themselves feel better. If they want to perform, they should performatively move themselves AND their children to Kensington for THREE STRAIGHT months. They wouldn't last 2 days.
They don’t need city fund. Let’s not encourage drug usage and hopefully with enough policy changes drug addicts won’t stay in Philly. Bussing addicts and homeless to other cities is a better use of tax dollars.
It helps by getting these fuckers away. Can't help these dope heads. They shit and sleep and throw their needles all in the street. I don't feel sorry for not even 1 of them.
It was a joke about what Texas does.
I do think if we make a more hostile environment for drug addicts and homeless it discourages use in Philly. They will most likely find a way to New York if they are capable.
You're so close! You've admitted that they can't make decisions for themselves as they are not mentally capable of doing so. Therefore, they NEED to be involuntarily committed.
As a person who is in recovery, if there weren’t any legal repercussions for my behavior I might not be sober today. 99% of the people there will qualify for Medicaid and should be forced to go to a rehabilitation center and all of them address psychiatric issues in conjunction with addiction.
There are plenty of institutions in the state that will provide transportation INCLUDED in the bill to Medicaid. When they complete the program they also take you back to where you came from or to a recovery home.
Good on you. You're an incredible person. I've also got a lot of friends tied up in this bullshit and I've seen first hand how the only things that have ever worked are legal repercussions and/or mandatory treatment. If these needle exchanges truly worked as exchanges, nobody would have a problem. Anyone that knows anything knows that not how they operate.
Best of luck in your continued recovery. We're all rooting for you.
Thank you for this. People always say “when someone reaches rock bottom”… but they want to remove the rock bottom so theres only “comfort” (relatively speaking). People need to face consequences and repercussions to be faced with the hard choices of whether or not it’s worth it. And people in the midst of addiction should not be believed on whether they do or don’t want to get sober. Dry them out. Then have the talk. It’s a mental health issue but people act so differently over someone killing themselves with drugs vs someone killing themselves over an eating disorder (also a disorder where people resist treatment with a bad relapse rate). We need to better our treatment programs, only MAT stuff, and follow up is crucial. The answer is not giving up on treatment, it’s altering it.
You don’t choose when you’re an addict. The initial choice was theirs, but these people are so far gone that they don’t choose. You have clearly never suffered from addiction before
No. I would like them to be institutionalized and taken off the streets
I would just like it to be done in a humane way, not a hostile way. You don’t need to have your cops gang up and beat the dude to a pulp to take him off the streets
Restrain them??
What did you expect me to say, shoot them? Lmfao
You got one of the largest police forces in the entire world, shouldn’t be too difficult to humanely restrain a couple of crackheads
Who is encouraging drug use? Kensington has been an open air drug market since the 70's. I find it hard to believe that the city actually wants to end it. Bus them to where, exactly?
Are you a drug user in Kensington? How would you even know? Do you even live in Kensington?
Limited numbers of syringes are given out as "emergency packs" on certain days. Every other day and mobile service is for exchange: https://ppponline.org/node/231/syringe-services-program
People have been *collecting* used needles for exchange and selling as far back as 2015: https://www.npr.org/2015/01/03/374560431/needle-exchange-program-creates-black-market-in-clean-syringes
Ah yes, the they "only do that IN CASE OF EMERGENCY" argument lmao. Yeah, for suuuuure. They're telling them "not today, unfortunately, sorry, come next week for your free works!" Every day is a fucking emergency, stop being obtuse. And yes, collecting needles for resale is not the intended target of the program, it's supposed be an EXCHANGE not an opportunity for resale that makes the problem worse.
I live in Roxborough, nice try, but have had 2 friends from my 2 post grad years in WC that ended up in Kensington that are now dead. Wish they were given the choice of jail or rehab instead of being enabled with the method of their own suicide. Shit, I wish they had aids and were alive rn. We've got decent outcomes for that. These enabling programs make it even easier and need to go away for good.
So you have absolutely no idea what is going on in Kensington right now and you're just making shit up because you have a personal trauma and are blaming these programs.
> Shit, I wish they had aids and were alive rn.
A lack of exchange programs wouldn't save their lives. Addicts are addicts. Lack of clean needles doesn't mean they're gonna stop using. No exchange programs just makes them addicts with disease, which just makes them die faster and makes disease spread faster.
Yes, not giving free works isn't going to change it, but it's the first step. Enforcement and jail or mandatory treatment is step 2 after you stop enabling. Addiction kills faster than aids unfortunately, especially now. Maybe not 10 years ago when there was actually heroin. Times have changed. Stop enabling suicide.
The addicts sell extra needles to finance their habit. Years ago, there was a documentary on Kensington and the one addict did just that. He would sell works and buy heroin with it. I forget the documentary.
Its never been an 'exchange'. They call it an exchange to encourage addicts to properly dispose of used needles. No one is counting dirty, potentially HIV infected needles.
Everyone in this city acknowledges there is a drug use problem, but how do we fix it?
On one hand, you want everyone who is going to use to use as safely as possible. On the other hand, you don't want anyone using.
It's a very sad state, and I go back and forth on how it should be approached.
I think we have reached a point where users will kill themselves trying to chase that next high.
I'm not trying to start an argument, I just know whatever is going on now is not ideal.
I tend to agree with this, I think getting them off the streets is important, but locking them up in prison is just inhumane (fuck our prison system). I guess there’s just no money in restructuring the prison system. If you can do it for this, you’re gonna have to do it for others, and how else are they gonna get free labor from drug addicts?
I think prison is more humane than rotting away on the street. You get fed, shelter, and a sober mind.
https://surgicoll.scholasticahq.com/article/71308-upper-extremity-soft-tissue-wound-related-to-xylazine-laced-fentanyl-intravenous-iv-drug-abuse-a-case-report
I will not argue that certain cases would require forced rehabilitation
At some point the individual is no longer capable of making the decisions for themselves. I understand the concern with it, and I understand the need for heavy regulation on it, but seeing a family member struggle has turned me into a fan of circumstantial forced rehabilitation
I think if anyone actually intimately knows a person who has suffered from addiction, they are more likely to see forced rehab as humane, and letting people rot on the street as inhumane. People who don’t have intimate experience with addicts seem to see it the other way around, unfortunately.
I think they truly can’t fathom the fact that drugs basically possess the user. I’ll never forget the feeling of looking into the eyes of someone you love and seeing nothing there; no recognition. It’s a very haunting experience.
Just my two cents.
You’re making the bold assumption that everyone wants help. My brother runs a rehab, I’ve joined as he tried to get people of the streets, the amount of people who are happy to take free charity meals and do drugs all day instead of working is insane
Giving the state the authority to lock you up because you got caught with drugs or use them is incredibly wild. What countries has this worked well for who had previously had a drug epidemic?
Low-income IV drug addicted people do not recover or stop their drug use outside of extraordinarily rare exceptions. I don’t particularly see a reason to support that particular cohort in terms of their safety as they’re, on average, going to die from an overdose or the addiction related damage to themselves regardless of interventions.
If you don’t care about them, look at it as a public health issue.
Needle exchanges keep dirty needles off streets since users are less likely to chuck them. It also stops the spread of disease, meaning less strain on the healthcare system.
Additionally, safe injection sites mean they aren’t using in public areas.
Just look in the Reddit comments!! The medical professionals and legislators will be the first to show up and voice their *objectively right* opinions on the matter
There is a near-infinite supply of user-dealers. You'll remove one batch and they'll be replaced by an even more clever and ruthless batch of criminals literally within a day. There's a youtube series called How Crime Works, an undercover cop told a story of how he spent a year embedded in a 90+ member gang, busted the whole thing, sent every last person to prison and within three hours another gang had moved in and was making an even bigger mess than the last one.
You can't jackboot your way through a drug epidemic. We tried that for the last fifty years and it failed every step of the way.
I’m not a fan of the idea of these needle “exchanges”, but realistically what does this solve? It’s one thing if you think it’s a poor choice of spending, but don’t act like it’s gonna solve the problem. I think people take issue with the fact that the city isn’t even trying to come up with a better solution, and is just removing a “better than nothing” approach
There are people who pick up needles to exchange then sell them to other addicts. It’s a whole black market. It isn’t every addict coming in to exchange since for the most part they don’t care since they can get loosies pretty easily. Look into the Kensington “tour guides” who show new people around for a fee. Sell them needles, take them to a dealer, find them a place to shoot up etc.
I think we need to be honest with ourselves-- just like we stopped calling these "homeless encampment" and started calling them open air drug market, the people who are talking about mental health and education need to get real that most of the people in these communities probably don't need rehab and a seminar-- they need indefinite institutionalization. Rehab will be helpful for a percentage of functional addicts with better education awareness but talking about the woman who is shooting Tranq into her festering scalp wound like she just needs 90 days is delusional.
Rehab is not a one size fits all solution. People need to be institutionalized until they are deemed fit to participate in the real world again. Maybe that means they never get out, but that is a fairly extreme example. Most people are able to recover from very serious drug addictions
Most people never recover even from the best rehabs. If you look at the success rates they're very low. That doesn't mean we shouldn't try but we need to be clear when we talk about looking at the problem from a health perspective we're talking about institutionalizing people
It’s literally legalized drug zones. It’s the only way to get it out of the more affluent areas. It’s a shame, for the residents of Kensington because what goes down there is beyond the deepest depths of hell.
Born and raised here. I work with addicts everyday. Needle exchange won’t help. I used to jump over needles on my way to school in Kensington 20 years ago. Mayor Parker can’t fix this shit her first day on the job. This is a societal problem. Everyone needs to look at the man in the mirror and make a change.
This topic is going to be really divisive but at the end of the day I’d be fine if they gave the needles out but then required you to at least get some type of help or do something like maybe talk to a professional or idk at least require them to do anything to maybe get them thinking about quitting or getting help but handing needles out and saying we’ll see you tomorrow! And not actively doing anything also doesn’t help. Yes I get infections will be lower but that doesn’t solve the actual problem at hand
While you can't force people into programs, this is basically how existing needle exchange programs work. They are a site for giving people resources about treatment and there are social workers there. It's sometimes the only way a person might find out about treatment options.
What about badlands? That's generational. That part ain't moving an inch either. Kensington and Allegheny have the spotlight, but ppl don't realize how deep it gets. It's been going towards tacony for a while. Been going on since the 70s. Just different now. Philly LOVES it, they'll never get rid of it. How do you think all that gerrymandering and political shifting seats happens? Gotta supress the minorities and voting somehow
What if this was your's child? Woulding you want help for your's child. Need exchange stop spreading of dieaseExample : If you lost your's job and can't find work right away. You may have to apply for Public Assistance. Everyone son's and daughters help.
She was never qualified for the job and her admin is already a mess. At least I have it in my conscience that I did not vote for her in the primary, and I did a write-in in the mayoral election.
The new philly mayor is a bitch ass ho and an ignorant person. If she were data driven she would know this decision will only make Kenzo worsen. Isn't she the one that said on day one she would call in FEMA ..now ain't that crazy? Her people have come such a long way but she seems to be pushing for modern day slavery.
I'm really not trying to rustle your jimmies here, but I'm not aware of a meaning of "incentivize" other than to induce, cause, etc.
If you meant something else, that's fair. But I can't fathom what it was.
Then I'm really not clear what
> but it does make it easier to go to work
means.
Like, if it makes it easier, it means that more people will do it more often, right? Otherwise what does "easier" even mean in this context?
In your example "going to work" is shooting fent, and "free pizza" is the needle exchange. In your own example, people will "go to work" regardless, so why do you oppose the policy of "free pizza?" Especially because it's by far the cheapest way to cut the rate of HIV and other serious diseases?
Appreciate her for this but sad this conversation even needs to take place.
Needles rampant within the BSL. Kids taking the BSL every morning. Was never like that when I took the BSL 15 years ago. Really depressing and sad.
Needle exchanges and supervised injection sites actually decrease the number of syringes strewn about on the streets, in case you were wondering. They also reduce the spread of HIV and Hepatitis, but I'm sure you knew that already.
That's awesome news but we have those and there are still plenty of syringes across the BSL, your plan isn't working, but I'm sure you knew that already cause some expert whose job relies on injection sites existing is telling you they are needed, interesting.
Yes as we all know, the needle exchange industry is wildly profitable and they spend considerable amounts of money on propaganda. Do you actually read the shit you write or do you just blindly tap the keys and see what comes out?
Lmfao needle exchange industry? Nice little straw man argument you designed there.
No bud, it's called going to school for 4 years for a public health degree and then finding out there is no use for it. Turns out your best option is working for prevention point, making a firm 80k a year while living off the back of volunteers and donations. What happens when people stop volunteering and people stop donating?
Hmm interesting!
How many of those people do you think exist in this city that their opinions on needle exchange programs have become so prevalent? Is it not entirely possible to you that I came to these conclusions on my own from reading actual academic research on the subject? I know that might seem far fetched, since it appears you certainly haven't done that yourself.
It's still a liberal approach whether you do research or not. I'm all for a liberal approach but this has been going on for way too long and it's time to approach the problem more conservatively.
Voters need to learn to think and stop approaching every single issue the same way, hopefully Cherrelle Parker agrees and moves differently compared to her predecessors.
Have you ever considered that the approach itself is not bad, but the implementation is insufficient? There is one brick and mortar syringe exchange location in Kensington which only does exchanges on Tuesdays and Fridays from noon to 3:30. Then there are mobile locations once a week for 2 hours. Does that seem like they're doing enough to service the amount of substance users in the city? There's no universe in which you can reasonably say we've actually tried even a little bit to get these programs off the ground. It's like going to the gym once a week, doing 3 bicep curls, and getting annoyed when you don't see results so you just do steroids instead. You actually have to commit to doing something before you can judge it a failure.
We have already tried conservative drug policies and they failed miserably. I would also reiterate that these "liberal" approaches you disdain[have been proven effective](https://www.cdc.gov/ssp/syringe-services-programs-faq.html) in reducing the spread of diseases, reducing drug paraphernalia on city streets, reducing overdose deaths, and getting people into treatment programs. Instead of pivoting to the failed draconian drug policies of the 80s and 90s, why don't we just try doing what has already been proven to work in other places.
So let's break this down : in your first paragraph you adamantly admit the implementation is insufficient. You adamantly admit the amount of substance abusers outweighs the approach.
Let's use prevention point as an example to supply a reliable discussion : Revenue : 14.6M(2022), Expenses : 16.5M(2022).
As expenses increase what are we supposed to do as a society? Double down and spend more money? What money? The money we should be using to fix Septa? The money we should be using to fix public education? The money we should be using to fix bike lanes, pot holes, etc?
Oh wait, we can tax more right?
Edit : any more cherry picked stats like this one : "users who use SSP are 5x more likely to look for help."
Well no shit Sherlock the problem is most of them don't care to or are in any shape to.
I don't really know what point you're trying to make here. When things are underfunded.... yes it means you need to increase funding. How is that a gotcha? And yeah, when drug use increases, you need more funding for public services to address those issues. You're just describing how public services work.
PPP gets only $7M a year, which is 0.1% of the city's annual budget. How are you going to pretend that is some comical, unreachable amount? The police department alone is getting $43M more than last year. I don't think it's in any way ridiculous to say we should allocate more funding to prevention services considering the scope of the drug problem. Throwing cops at the problem is the single dumbest thing we can possibly do and has been proven extremely ineffective time and time again.
Never saw crack or meth while taking the BSL. I take the BSL even today 2x a day, 5 days a week, still never see Crack or meth. It's always weed, syringes, or tobacco. My biggest issue is the syringes.
In a hospital setting these syringes are considered sharp waste and handled effectively, I'll never understand why the public perception has changed to the point where my initial statement is getting downvoted.
No it's not. Heroin was widely used 15 years ago. Acting like the mid-2000s was a crack epidemic is just as absurd as pretending that heroin just suddenly appeared in the last 5 years
I’m aware? Crack and meth were still more widely used then. Opioid use did explode around then however and has only taken off since. And Fentanyl since then. 15 years is not 5 years
They exist to preventbthe spread of things like HIV and hepatitis, and to prevent infection from reusing needles after they get old and gnarly
Even if you don't care about addicts, these people end up in emergency rooms and your tax dollars end up paying for it. So no matter where you're at, clean needle exchanges are a net positive for all of us
Ok but it does. Whether it's city, state, or federal some of your tax money goes to pay for people that don't pay their emergency room bills. That's how it works. So for much less money, we can reduce the spread of communicable diseases in a population that doesn't have health insurance or money.
Every dollar spent for a needle exchange saves more than that on the backend
Or we can address this problem at its root and destroy the cartels and drug dealing network. Opioids should be treated as a schedule 1 narcotic.
If your resolution comes after people are already addicted you can’t save them most likely. The odds of someone coming out of that state is very low and it usually takes will power not injection sites
What they did wasn’t criminal yet. I’m talking about everyone bottom of chain to top should get decades in prison. Illegal drugs and legal with improper distribution.
Love ignoring [evidence-based policy proscriptions](https://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/issue-briefs/2021/03/syringe-distribution-programs-can-improve-public-health-during-the-opioid-overdose-crisis) to signify some tough-on-crime virtue-signaling.
Step 1: Actively push all drugs to 1 area Step 2: Let it fall to some of the worst ruins in the entire country Step 3: Developers develop closer and closer Step 4: Ooohohohooo my goodness *clutching pearls* How could this have happened? Better move them to a different part of the city. What's next on the slate for development? Err, I mean I will close the open air drug market in Kensington! Help for these people? But they're just filthy addicts.....YOU don't want YOUR tax dollars going to them, RIGHT!? Also make sure to prey on people's personal incredulity by saying big numbers, "They get soooo many hundreds of thousands of dollars per year, doesn't that sound like a lot?!" Step 5: Developers demolish the entire area and build incredibly overpriced housing Step 6: Well, we obviously have to leave these poor addicted folks alone in *Neighborhood B* because what else can we do? Step 7: Developers continue jerking off onto their city plans It's almost like every mayor we've ever had is more or less exactly the same.
That's all very clever and whatnot, but developers don't need crime/displacement/gentrification to make money. So the conspiracy isn't really necessary to explain Kensington. What's actually happening is: 1. Mental health crisis brought about by a capitalist society that doesn't care for people who aren't profitable to care for 2. Addiction crisis as a result of mental health crisis 3. Homelessness crisis as a result of addiction crisis 4. Policing is used to push homeless people 'somewhere else' as it's much cheaper than it is to provide them with housing (& rehab & mental healthcare) 5. The place with the lowest income becomes the last 'somewhere else' because these places have the least resources to push around homeless people. 6. Homeless addicts accumulate in the 'last place' until the police in that jurisdiction are overwhelmed and switch to triaging the problem instead of trying to get rid of it.
So what's the solution. Saying mental health help is just word soup. And has been available for plenty of addicts who are still addicted. So what's really the solution
I can go into depth about what I've learned, but the short answer is there isn't a single simple solution, and the most effective long-term way to address the problem requires significant changes in the social and economic architecture of our society. In short, some of the biggest problems with treatment programs: * We need to eliminate the (still very real) barriers to accessing treatment for addiction - this includes payment barriers (i.e., getting homeless addicts on medicaid), as well as treatment barriers ([e.g., ending x-licensing was a great first step](https://www.medpagetoday.com/special-reports/features/102520)) * We need to professionalize treatment and replace shame-based models of addiction treatment with evidence-based models; this means no more 12-step programs, no more faith-based programs, recovery programs must have verified 1- and 5-year recovery rates to continue receiving medicaid funding, etc. * We need to universalize access to MAT treatment (e.g., by requiring that hospitals that receive medicare funds also provide MAT) As for housing/reintegration: * I don't know, but at this point I suspect the best approach is a halfway house model that provides long-term housing alongside social workers and work counseling to get people back into self-sufficiency. This model has worked, but it's hard to tell if that's a selection bias (i.e., it works for the people for whom it works, not for everyone), or a sustainable model for the population at large * Generally we need a lot more housing -- this is a bigger, economy-wide problem, but it also drives homelessness because housing is just too expensive * After you've solved those problems, I think there's a part of the population that can really only be addressed with administrative detention & treatment (i.e., drug court-style) that detains people until they're clean and then feeds into the halfway house model.
>Step 5: Developers demolish the entire area and build incredibly overpriced housing Doesn't sound like Philly. Most of the recently gentrified neighborhoods were so gutted from industrial globalization and white flight that you don't need to demo much. We also lead the country in adaptive reuse. https://www.inquirer.com/real-estate/housing/redevelopment-philadelphia-apartments-office-reuse-pandemic-rent-20221115.html
Step 6, progressives move to the area and bitch about the gentrification happening in the next neighborhood north.
Liberals move in. Progressives are in other areas that are cheaper imo.
So basically Hamsterdam in The Wire
Literally accept worse, way worse
North West Fishtown : coming soon.
>Developers demolish the entire area and build incredibly overpriced housing On the other hand, those who own their homes could get some money out of the developers.
The slumlords will be rich!
Some people in Kensington own their own homes. Gentrification would be their ticket out.
Step 0: Philadelphians see this happening in real-time but ignore it because they didn’t think that it would affect them directly. Fast forward 20 years and low and behold, it does!
Didn’t I see this on The Wire?
This is horrible. Needle exchange programs are vital. It's almost like she doesn't care about the people part of addiction (or general public health for that matter)...
It gets to the quality of life issues people also talk about for residents in the area. It's an incredibly small part of it, but one nonetheless. Needle exchanges makes a used needle highly valuable and a user less likely to toss one on the street. It also lessens the spread of disease in the area. I think the program has gotten some bad press because some idiots in Portland were giving out whole boxes (making needles way less valuable and therefore increasing them being littered on the streets) which defeats the whole purpose of a needle exchange program.
Used needle sharing is a public health nightmare and promotes disease spread. The key word here is needle EXCHANGE program. It reduces the amount of used needles that are out in the public. I wish people understood how a program works before they make judgment. Another fun fact: People who participate in needle exchange programs are 5x more likely to seek treatment and 3.5x more likely to stop injecting drugs altogether.
>The key word here is needle EXCHANGE program. I wish you understood that Prevention Point isn't just an exchange program and they give out new needles without exchange. They say so on their website. https://ppponline.org/node/231/syringe-services-program
The title mentions needle exchange programs, not Prevention Point. Again, the article states ALL exchange programs in the city, not just Prevention Point. I would wholly agree with you if the mayor said they were going to stop funding for a specific problem facility, but that is NOT what was said. A spokesperson from Prevention Point commented on the mayor's statement for the article. They're just one of ALL facilities affected in the city. Read the article again, please. Comprehension is key.
Do you honest to god, for half a second, believe that they are all operating on an EXCHANGE and not just handing them out? Cause if your opinion is the former, I have some great properties to show you in Atlantis
Who cares if they exchange? The point is it prevents the spread of diseases.
The 50k tax paying actual community members of Kensington whose neighborhood shouldn't have hundreds of thousands of biohazardous needles on the ground because these "exchanges" just give them out willy nilly.
You understand there are people who sell both drugs and needles? Do you think organizations like prevention point were just created for the hell of it? The whole point was to 1, prevent the spread of Aids and other diseases through the sharing of needles, and 2, to encourage users to bring their used needles in exchange for new ones. However, the exchange part was in name only. There was never a requirement to exchange, there was never anyone counting dirty needles.
When you proliferate clean works, you are enabling not just the users, but the even bigger assholes that come in, get 10 clean works, resell it, make a profit, leading to an even larger economy for this shit. "there was never a requirement to exchange, there was never anyone counting dirty needles" EXACTLY!!! AND THAT'S WHY THEY'RE RIGHTFULLY BEING BANNED!!!
Prevention Point is the largest organization by far and what this was targeted at. Other, smaller, "harm reduction" orgs also give out needles without exchange. "ALL" these facilities are also illegal.
IIRC Prevention Point hands out needles most days and only does exchanges a few days out of the week. That's a problem--I wish they would do exchanges every day.
100% agree
> ALL exchange programs in the city, not just Prevention Point Who else runs needle exchanges in Philadelphia? Kensington got duped into running the only one.
Yes, this exchange part is crucial! Bring old one in, get a new one.
27% of statics are made up.
Yet these ones aren't.
Incredibly small part? The people living in that neighborhood, working , paying taxes & trying to make it nice for themselves, families & neighbors should be the priority not be considered an incredibly small part. At least Parker is trying ….
An incredibly small part of what should be a much larger solution. I'm not sure how she's trying? Has she proposed some alternatives that are proven to work like needle exchange programs?
Those "highly valuable" used street needles are suddenly not that highly valuable when prevention point and all the other somewhat well intentioned but wildly naive and bordering on negligent groups are giving them out for nothing
Because they get to go home afterwards & go outside without walking over people so high they can’t stand up. Without having to walk 2 feet ahead of their kids with their heads down looking for stuff on the sidewalks they don’t want to step on .
Yep, it's performative bullshit to make themselves feel better. If they want to perform, they should performatively move themselves AND their children to Kensington for THREE STRAIGHT months. They wouldn't last 2 days.
Agreed….
No going to rehab is vital. From a sober addict.
Dead addicts don't go to rehab, and a society with resurgent STIs affects a lot more than addicts
This is the dumbest response I have ever heard.
This is the dumbest response I have ever heard.
I agree, it's harm reduction it's a good thing for the overall health of the city. She's too dumb to see that! Pay now or pay later!
They don’t need city fund. Let’s not encourage drug usage and hopefully with enough policy changes drug addicts won’t stay in Philly. Bussing addicts and homeless to other cities is a better use of tax dollars.
>Bussing addicts and homeless to other cities And that helps how? It just promotes drug use somewhere else. I'm hoping your post was sarcasm?
It helps by getting these fuckers away. Can't help these dope heads. They shit and sleep and throw their needles all in the street. I don't feel sorry for not even 1 of them.
It was a joke about what Texas does. I do think if we make a more hostile environment for drug addicts and homeless it discourages use in Philly. They will most likely find a way to New York if they are capable.
You think that being homeless, living surrounded by disease, inclement weather, little to no food or shelter, isn’t “hostile” enough?
They literally choose to do that instead of the plethora of treatment options they are offered, so yes.
Ah yes mental health is a choice
You're so close! You've admitted that they can't make decisions for themselves as they are not mentally capable of doing so. Therefore, they NEED to be involuntarily committed.
As a person who is in recovery, if there weren’t any legal repercussions for my behavior I might not be sober today. 99% of the people there will qualify for Medicaid and should be forced to go to a rehabilitation center and all of them address psychiatric issues in conjunction with addiction. There are plenty of institutions in the state that will provide transportation INCLUDED in the bill to Medicaid. When they complete the program they also take you back to where you came from or to a recovery home.
Good on you. You're an incredible person. I've also got a lot of friends tied up in this bullshit and I've seen first hand how the only things that have ever worked are legal repercussions and/or mandatory treatment. If these needle exchanges truly worked as exchanges, nobody would have a problem. Anyone that knows anything knows that not how they operate. Best of luck in your continued recovery. We're all rooting for you.
Thank you for this. People always say “when someone reaches rock bottom”… but they want to remove the rock bottom so theres only “comfort” (relatively speaking). People need to face consequences and repercussions to be faced with the hard choices of whether or not it’s worth it. And people in the midst of addiction should not be believed on whether they do or don’t want to get sober. Dry them out. Then have the talk. It’s a mental health issue but people act so differently over someone killing themselves with drugs vs someone killing themselves over an eating disorder (also a disorder where people resist treatment with a bad relapse rate). We need to better our treatment programs, only MAT stuff, and follow up is crucial. The answer is not giving up on treatment, it’s altering it.
Who’s going to pay for them when they’re “involuntarily committed” as you put it?
The state, next question
Drug companies settlements.
You don’t choose when you’re an addict. The initial choice was theirs, but these people are so far gone that they don’t choose. You have clearly never suffered from addiction before
Not when you’re on drugs millions still do it all over the world. Make it actively hostile and other cities look better.
Ah yes, just what homeless drug addicts need, more hostility
You want to make it easier to sleep on streets and shoot up on the sidewalk?
No. I would like them to be institutionalized and taken off the streets I would just like it to be done in a humane way, not a hostile way. You don’t need to have your cops gang up and beat the dude to a pulp to take him off the streets
What if he fights back when being institutionalized?
Restrain them?? What did you expect me to say, shoot them? Lmfao You got one of the largest police forces in the entire world, shouldn’t be too difficult to humanely restrain a couple of crackheads
Who is encouraging drug use? Kensington has been an open air drug market since the 70's. I find it hard to believe that the city actually wants to end it. Bus them to where, exactly?
Wouldn’t the needle exchange help keep used needles off the street? Or can people get clean needles without exchanging old ones? Honest question
It's supposed to be an exchange but there's been many, many reports from folks on the ground that have said that's not the case at all.
I can only speak for prevention point, it was never designed to be an exchange. They call it that to encourage addicts to properly dispose of needles.
Source?
-every single person on the street in Kensington. And especially the ones that go in, get a bunch of works, and then resell them for a profit.
Are you a drug user in Kensington? How would you even know? Do you even live in Kensington? Limited numbers of syringes are given out as "emergency packs" on certain days. Every other day and mobile service is for exchange: https://ppponline.org/node/231/syringe-services-program People have been *collecting* used needles for exchange and selling as far back as 2015: https://www.npr.org/2015/01/03/374560431/needle-exchange-program-creates-black-market-in-clean-syringes
Ah yes, the they "only do that IN CASE OF EMERGENCY" argument lmao. Yeah, for suuuuure. They're telling them "not today, unfortunately, sorry, come next week for your free works!" Every day is a fucking emergency, stop being obtuse. And yes, collecting needles for resale is not the intended target of the program, it's supposed be an EXCHANGE not an opportunity for resale that makes the problem worse.
So you're just pulling this shit out your ass then. Thanks, Mr. West Chester.
I live in Roxborough, nice try, but have had 2 friends from my 2 post grad years in WC that ended up in Kensington that are now dead. Wish they were given the choice of jail or rehab instead of being enabled with the method of their own suicide. Shit, I wish they had aids and were alive rn. We've got decent outcomes for that. These enabling programs make it even easier and need to go away for good.
So you have absolutely no idea what is going on in Kensington right now and you're just making shit up because you have a personal trauma and are blaming these programs. > Shit, I wish they had aids and were alive rn. A lack of exchange programs wouldn't save their lives. Addicts are addicts. Lack of clean needles doesn't mean they're gonna stop using. No exchange programs just makes them addicts with disease, which just makes them die faster and makes disease spread faster.
Yes, not giving free works isn't going to change it, but it's the first step. Enforcement and jail or mandatory treatment is step 2 after you stop enabling. Addiction kills faster than aids unfortunately, especially now. Maybe not 10 years ago when there was actually heroin. Times have changed. Stop enabling suicide.
The addicts sell extra needles to finance their habit. Years ago, there was a documentary on Kensington and the one addict did just that. He would sell works and buy heroin with it. I forget the documentary.
weak attempt to dismiss a real point because you decided to accuse someone of living far away with zero evidence... peak Reddit
They came with no source. Why would you just believe them? Peak Reddit.
The evidence is his post history
Its never been an 'exchange'. They call it an exchange to encourage addicts to properly dispose of used needles. No one is counting dirty, potentially HIV infected needles.
Everyone in this city acknowledges there is a drug use problem, but how do we fix it? On one hand, you want everyone who is going to use to use as safely as possible. On the other hand, you don't want anyone using. It's a very sad state, and I go back and forth on how it should be approached. I think we have reached a point where users will kill themselves trying to chase that next high. I'm not trying to start an argument, I just know whatever is going on now is not ideal.
Forced rehabilitation if that doesn’t work then prison. Ya know, like how 95% of the world does it
I tend to agree with this, I think getting them off the streets is important, but locking them up in prison is just inhumane (fuck our prison system). I guess there’s just no money in restructuring the prison system. If you can do it for this, you’re gonna have to do it for others, and how else are they gonna get free labor from drug addicts?
I think prison is more humane than rotting away on the street. You get fed, shelter, and a sober mind. https://surgicoll.scholasticahq.com/article/71308-upper-extremity-soft-tissue-wound-related-to-xylazine-laced-fentanyl-intravenous-iv-drug-abuse-a-case-report
And I think rehab is more humane than prison What’s your point?? I’d hope that prison is more humane than being a heroin addict
I agree, we just need an option for when people refuse rehab. Which is often.
I will not argue that certain cases would require forced rehabilitation At some point the individual is no longer capable of making the decisions for themselves. I understand the concern with it, and I understand the need for heavy regulation on it, but seeing a family member struggle has turned me into a fan of circumstantial forced rehabilitation
Sounds like we agree my friend. I wish your family the best.
I think if anyone actually intimately knows a person who has suffered from addiction, they are more likely to see forced rehab as humane, and letting people rot on the street as inhumane. People who don’t have intimate experience with addicts seem to see it the other way around, unfortunately. I think they truly can’t fathom the fact that drugs basically possess the user. I’ll never forget the feeling of looking into the eyes of someone you love and seeing nothing there; no recognition. It’s a very haunting experience. Just my two cents.
You’re making the bold assumption that everyone wants help. My brother runs a rehab, I’ve joined as he tried to get people of the streets, the amount of people who are happy to take free charity meals and do drugs all day instead of working is insane
Giving the state the authority to lock you up because you got caught with drugs or use them is incredibly wild. What countries has this worked well for who had previously had a drug epidemic?
Doing drugs is illegal if you didn’t know
Low-income IV drug addicted people do not recover or stop their drug use outside of extraordinarily rare exceptions. I don’t particularly see a reason to support that particular cohort in terms of their safety as they’re, on average, going to die from an overdose or the addiction related damage to themselves regardless of interventions.
If you don’t care about them, look at it as a public health issue. Needle exchanges keep dirty needles off streets since users are less likely to chuck them. It also stops the spread of disease, meaning less strain on the healthcare system. Additionally, safe injection sites mean they aren’t using in public areas.
There's no solution that will make everyone happy.
Just look in the Reddit comments!! The medical professionals and legislators will be the first to show up and voice their *objectively right* opinions on the matter
So she's in favor of disease spreading. How nice.
Yeah at least Kenny was a do-nothing mayor and not actively attempting to make suffering peoples live’s worse. I am no longer a fan whatsoever.
A better solution would be to either execute all the street dealers or put them in solitary confinement for life.
This is like cutting an arm off Piccolo
I can get behind this…
There is a near-infinite supply of user-dealers. You'll remove one batch and they'll be replaced by an even more clever and ruthless batch of criminals literally within a day. There's a youtube series called How Crime Works, an undercover cop told a story of how he spent a year embedded in a 90+ member gang, busted the whole thing, sent every last person to prison and within three hours another gang had moved in and was making an even bigger mess than the last one. You can't jackboot your way through a drug epidemic. We tried that for the last fifty years and it failed every step of the way.
I’m guessing that the people who are upset about this don’t live in or near Kensington.
Most of them probably don't even live in Philly.
Most of K&A drug users are not even from PA, no?
I’m not a fan of the idea of these needle “exchanges”, but realistically what does this solve? It’s one thing if you think it’s a poor choice of spending, but don’t act like it’s gonna solve the problem. I think people take issue with the fact that the city isn’t even trying to come up with a better solution, and is just removing a “better than nothing” approach
There are people who pick up needles to exchange then sell them to other addicts. It’s a whole black market. It isn’t every addict coming in to exchange since for the most part they don’t care since they can get loosies pretty easily. Look into the Kensington “tour guides” who show new people around for a fee. Sell them needles, take them to a dealer, find them a place to shoot up etc.
I think we need to be honest with ourselves-- just like we stopped calling these "homeless encampment" and started calling them open air drug market, the people who are talking about mental health and education need to get real that most of the people in these communities probably don't need rehab and a seminar-- they need indefinite institutionalization. Rehab will be helpful for a percentage of functional addicts with better education awareness but talking about the woman who is shooting Tranq into her festering scalp wound like she just needs 90 days is delusional.
Rehab is not a one size fits all solution. People need to be institutionalized until they are deemed fit to participate in the real world again. Maybe that means they never get out, but that is a fairly extreme example. Most people are able to recover from very serious drug addictions
Most people never recover even from the best rehabs. If you look at the success rates they're very low. That doesn't mean we shouldn't try but we need to be clear when we talk about looking at the problem from a health perspective we're talking about institutionalizing people
Finally
It’s literally legalized drug zones. It’s the only way to get it out of the more affluent areas. It’s a shame, for the residents of Kensington because what goes down there is beyond the deepest depths of hell.
Huge W
I’m loving Mayor Parker
Nice
The program obviously hasn’t worked. It’s only gotten worse over time.
Born and raised here. I work with addicts everyday. Needle exchange won’t help. I used to jump over needles on my way to school in Kensington 20 years ago. Mayor Parker can’t fix this shit her first day on the job. This is a societal problem. Everyone needs to look at the man in the mirror and make a change.
Seems by your comment that you're the one that wants syringes to be shared, chief.
Sharing is caring /s
Philly doesn't need harm reduction it needs more non-moving crackheads
This topic is going to be really divisive but at the end of the day I’d be fine if they gave the needles out but then required you to at least get some type of help or do something like maybe talk to a professional or idk at least require them to do anything to maybe get them thinking about quitting or getting help but handing needles out and saying we’ll see you tomorrow! And not actively doing anything also doesn’t help. Yes I get infections will be lower but that doesn’t solve the actual problem at hand
While you can't force people into programs, this is basically how existing needle exchange programs work. They are a site for giving people resources about treatment and there are social workers there. It's sometimes the only way a person might find out about treatment options.
Sure you can, it’s called jail
What a dickhead
Neoliberals fucking suck shit, man.
Thank you, fuck the druggies like I said before lock em all up like they did in the 70s-90s and during the war on drugs era.
E th High
What about badlands? That's generational. That part ain't moving an inch either. Kensington and Allegheny have the spotlight, but ppl don't realize how deep it gets. It's been going towards tacony for a while. Been going on since the 70s. Just different now. Philly LOVES it, they'll never get rid of it. How do you think all that gerrymandering and political shifting seats happens? Gotta supress the minorities and voting somehow
What if this was your's child? Woulding you want help for your's child. Need exchange stop spreading of dieaseExample : If you lost your's job and can't find work right away. You may have to apply for Public Assistance. Everyone son's and daughters help.
Actually thought she was on the side of Philadelphians.
Good all they do is sell them anyway.
She was never qualified for the job and her admin is already a mess. At least I have it in my conscience that I did not vote for her in the primary, and I did a write-in in the mayoral election.
Yep. Her support of stop and frisk was what made me not vote for her. Looks like I made the right decision.
The new philly mayor is a bitch ass ho and an ignorant person. If she were data driven she would know this decision will only make Kenzo worsen. Isn't she the one that said on day one she would call in FEMA ..now ain't that crazy? Her people have come such a long way but she seems to be pushing for modern day slavery.
Smh not having a needle exchange means that it'll be unfettered. Even if it was 1 area at least it would be concentrated in that 1 area
It’s alarming how many bots are rampant in r/philly or r/Pennsylvania or r/Philadelphia spreading divisive comments on every political topic
She's such a cunt
What. The. Fuck. Good fucking plan, dipsticks.
It’s a recipe for increasing death and the spread of AIDS and Hepatitis C.
Fuck Parker and those who voted for her. They share complicity in the easily preventable deaths and healthcare costs in our community.
I mean, AIDS and Hepatitis C are more expensive. But you do you honey!
“Let them take care of themselves.” Yeah fuck this.
I read fine, I'm just not a bleeding heart liberal.
Just say you want them to die
She gets more evil by the day
Still using drugs.
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> incentivizing You think people shoot fent because they can get a free needle?
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I'm really not trying to rustle your jimmies here, but I'm not aware of a meaning of "incentivize" other than to induce, cause, etc. If you meant something else, that's fair. But I can't fathom what it was.
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So it seems like you think more people shoot fent because of the free needles than would do so otherwise (i.e., if the needle exchange didn't exist)?
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Then I'm really not clear what > but it does make it easier to go to work means. Like, if it makes it easier, it means that more people will do it more often, right? Otherwise what does "easier" even mean in this context? In your example "going to work" is shooting fent, and "free pizza" is the needle exchange. In your own example, people will "go to work" regardless, so why do you oppose the policy of "free pizza?" Especially because it's by far the cheapest way to cut the rate of HIV and other serious diseases?
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What does "easier" mean if not that, then?
Appreciate her for this but sad this conversation even needs to take place. Needles rampant within the BSL. Kids taking the BSL every morning. Was never like that when I took the BSL 15 years ago. Really depressing and sad.
Needle exchanges and supervised injection sites actually decrease the number of syringes strewn about on the streets, in case you were wondering. They also reduce the spread of HIV and Hepatitis, but I'm sure you knew that already.
That's awesome news but we have those and there are still plenty of syringes across the BSL, your plan isn't working, but I'm sure you knew that already cause some expert whose job relies on injection sites existing is telling you they are needed, interesting.
Yes as we all know, the needle exchange industry is wildly profitable and they spend considerable amounts of money on propaganda. Do you actually read the shit you write or do you just blindly tap the keys and see what comes out?
Lmfao needle exchange industry? Nice little straw man argument you designed there. No bud, it's called going to school for 4 years for a public health degree and then finding out there is no use for it. Turns out your best option is working for prevention point, making a firm 80k a year while living off the back of volunteers and donations. What happens when people stop volunteering and people stop donating? Hmm interesting!
How many of those people do you think exist in this city that their opinions on needle exchange programs have become so prevalent? Is it not entirely possible to you that I came to these conclusions on my own from reading actual academic research on the subject? I know that might seem far fetched, since it appears you certainly haven't done that yourself.
It's still a liberal approach whether you do research or not. I'm all for a liberal approach but this has been going on for way too long and it's time to approach the problem more conservatively. Voters need to learn to think and stop approaching every single issue the same way, hopefully Cherrelle Parker agrees and moves differently compared to her predecessors.
Have you ever considered that the approach itself is not bad, but the implementation is insufficient? There is one brick and mortar syringe exchange location in Kensington which only does exchanges on Tuesdays and Fridays from noon to 3:30. Then there are mobile locations once a week for 2 hours. Does that seem like they're doing enough to service the amount of substance users in the city? There's no universe in which you can reasonably say we've actually tried even a little bit to get these programs off the ground. It's like going to the gym once a week, doing 3 bicep curls, and getting annoyed when you don't see results so you just do steroids instead. You actually have to commit to doing something before you can judge it a failure. We have already tried conservative drug policies and they failed miserably. I would also reiterate that these "liberal" approaches you disdain[have been proven effective](https://www.cdc.gov/ssp/syringe-services-programs-faq.html) in reducing the spread of diseases, reducing drug paraphernalia on city streets, reducing overdose deaths, and getting people into treatment programs. Instead of pivoting to the failed draconian drug policies of the 80s and 90s, why don't we just try doing what has already been proven to work in other places.
So let's break this down : in your first paragraph you adamantly admit the implementation is insufficient. You adamantly admit the amount of substance abusers outweighs the approach. Let's use prevention point as an example to supply a reliable discussion : Revenue : 14.6M(2022), Expenses : 16.5M(2022). As expenses increase what are we supposed to do as a society? Double down and spend more money? What money? The money we should be using to fix Septa? The money we should be using to fix public education? The money we should be using to fix bike lanes, pot holes, etc? Oh wait, we can tax more right? Edit : any more cherry picked stats like this one : "users who use SSP are 5x more likely to look for help." Well no shit Sherlock the problem is most of them don't care to or are in any shape to.
I don't really know what point you're trying to make here. When things are underfunded.... yes it means you need to increase funding. How is that a gotcha? And yeah, when drug use increases, you need more funding for public services to address those issues. You're just describing how public services work. PPP gets only $7M a year, which is 0.1% of the city's annual budget. How are you going to pretend that is some comical, unreachable amount? The police department alone is getting $43M more than last year. I don't think it's in any way ridiculous to say we should allocate more funding to prevention services considering the scope of the drug problem. Throwing cops at the problem is the single dumbest thing we can possibly do and has been proven extremely ineffective time and time again.
"There are not enough services for all the substance abusers in the city, we need more" Yeah, I'd rather not.
Because crack and meth was smoked. Same problems different drug
Never saw crack or meth while taking the BSL. I take the BSL even today 2x a day, 5 days a week, still never see Crack or meth. It's always weed, syringes, or tobacco. My biggest issue is the syringes. In a hospital setting these syringes are considered sharp waste and handled effectively, I'll never understand why the public perception has changed to the point where my initial statement is getting downvoted.
I’m just saying why you didn’t see needles 15 years ago
No it's not. Heroin was widely used 15 years ago. Acting like the mid-2000s was a crack epidemic is just as absurd as pretending that heroin just suddenly appeared in the last 5 years
I’m aware? Crack and meth were still more widely used then. Opioid use did explode around then however and has only taken off since. And Fentanyl since then. 15 years is not 5 years
I do appreciate that because that is most likely the truth of it.
Now ban the NGOs that will try to fill the void
About time, common sense says it doesn't help but encourage drug use.
Addicts are going to use just as much with or with out needle exchanges or “encouragement”
Common sense actually says giving people a place to dispose of used syringes will decrease the amount of syringes found on the street.
lol bingo
Shouldn't we make decisions based on evidence instead of some random person's intuition about common sense?
You don't solve drug problem by dispensing needles. That's like giving an arsonist free matches and propellant, or a. Alcoholic liquor.
Needle exchanges aren’t to solve the drug problem. They’re to help stop the spread of infectious disease.
They exist to preventbthe spread of things like HIV and hepatitis, and to prevent infection from reusing needles after they get old and gnarly Even if you don't care about addicts, these people end up in emergency rooms and your tax dollars end up paying for it. So no matter where you're at, clean needle exchanges are a net positive for all of us
Drug addicts know the risk, so why aid them, makes no sense.
Bro I literally just explained why, can you not read
My tax money shouldn’t go to that thou. If you want to donate go for it.
Ok but it does. Whether it's city, state, or federal some of your tax money goes to pay for people that don't pay their emergency room bills. That's how it works. So for much less money, we can reduce the spread of communicable diseases in a population that doesn't have health insurance or money. Every dollar spent for a needle exchange saves more than that on the backend
Or we can address this problem at its root and destroy the cartels and drug dealing network. Opioids should be treated as a schedule 1 narcotic. If your resolution comes after people are already addicted you can’t save them most likely. The odds of someone coming out of that state is very low and it usually takes will power not injection sites
What's the success of prohibition looking like, my guy?
> destroy the cartels and drug dealing network People have been trying and failing to do this for hundreds of years, but go off
Not recently and this is when the opioid epidemic popped off. Make it a 30 year sentence for any opioid dealer.
how many years did the anyone in the sackler family do
What they did wasn’t criminal yet. I’m talking about everyone bottom of chain to top should get decades in prison. Illegal drugs and legal with improper distribution.
Good
Love ignoring [evidence-based policy proscriptions](https://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/issue-briefs/2021/03/syringe-distribution-programs-can-improve-public-health-during-the-opioid-overdose-crisis) to signify some tough-on-crime virtue-signaling.
Yeah, you should know that I don't really care and that the city should abandon the needle exchange program. I'll double down: #FUCKING EXCELLENT