Eric, will you re-open supervised consumption sites so people have somewhere to go, or is the plan simply more arrests and incarceration?
We've tried the enforcement-first approach for decades. If it worked, we wouldn't be losing so many people.
Driving people out of public view doesn't make drug use disappear. It drives people to use alone, which leads to more overdoses, more brain injuries, and more deaths.
Addiction is a chronic relapsing condition. Many of the people who died had already been through recovery treatment and prison numerous times.
Harm reduction isn't the opposite of recovery. It keeps people alive long enough to reach it.
I hope this helps.
Let me be clear that when it comes to public order, I will put transit riders first.
That means I’d demand cities enforce strict rules against drug use, menace, occupying multiple seats, blocking aisles, playing audio without headphones, smoking, vaping, camping, and other anti-social conduct that drives paying riders off public transit systems.
Repeat offenders should face escalating consequences up to and including involuntary solutions.
We do not have to tolerate disorder. And I’ll invest in space to help those in need at the same time.
But we should not be a culture that valorizes bad personal conduct as empathy.