Not-Safe drug sites enable zombies

The argument in favor of so-called safe injection sites, which are not safe,  can be reduced to two words: Saves lives.

That is true, although the number to be saved is very small, 24-76, the city estimates.

There are two arguments against: 1- It is illegal. 2- It enables addiction. 

The illegal argument was knocked down when the Safehouse people — who are behind the nonprofit approved by the city to set up the site — found a judge to say it was not in violation of law. U.S. Attorney William McSwain is appealing the judge’s expansionist decision, but drug use remains illegal. [It was later ruled illegal.]

As for argument 2, let me quote City Council President Darrell Clarke: “I don’t fundamentally understand how you get to a point where you have a person stop using drugs by enabling them to use drugs in a quote-unquote safe manner.”

Bingo! 

In other words, do you open cocktail lounges to alcoholics who want to quit? How about tobacco safe houses for people who want to quit smoking? You don’t normalize the behavior you are trying to stop.

The Not-Safe injection sites are not even designed for people who want to quit. Just the opposite. They exist for people who want to shoot up. 

Where you have drug addicts you have open drug use and drug needles and drug dealers. This is all one fabric. And drug dealers are among the top reason for Philly’s sky-high homicide rate.

Why would you welcome something that threatens the cleanliness, property values, health and safety of your neighborhood?

This is a big topic and I have to cover a lot of ground to explain why this is a bad idea.

We are told we should accommodate these people because they are our neighbors, it is not their fault, and is just a medical problem. 

The addicts — we are not supposed to call them “addicts” the enablers say — “are no different than anyone with high blood pressure, or diabetes, or cancer. We don’t question the fact that people go for treatment for these diseases,” Mayor Jim Kenney told Fox29’s Jeff Cole.

Kenney is mouthing a popular platitude, and illustrates what New York Sen. Daniel Patrick Moyniham called “defining deviancy down.” That means we downgrade or redefine crime so we won’t have to deal with it.

Some even define Philadelphia’s gun homicide explosion as a public health issue. Really. 

Here’s my response: People do not voluntarily give themselves high blood pressure, diabetes or cancer. When they voluntarily stick a needle in their arm, or swallow a pill not intended for them, they do so knowing they are breaking the law, knowing the outcome will be addiction.

Second, contrary to what the mayor suggested, addicts don’t get treatment at Not-Safe injection sites. They get supplies, not treatment. 

Hey, did you notice I said “sites,” plural?

In the runup to the launch of the city-endorsed shooting gallery, we heard about the “safe injection” site (singular) in Vancouver, or Toronto.

From the jump I wondered about the efficacy of a Philadelphia “legal” shooting gallery in Kensington, the Walmart of Heroin, where it was expected to be located. Did I believe that a drug zombie living in East Falls needing a fix was going to take regional rail to the Jefferson Station, then grab the Market-Frankford El to get to Kensington, the epicenter of Philly’s drug problem?

I did not believe that, and neither do the people who run Safehouse. They know — but do not say — to be effective you might need as many as 20 shooting galleries in neighborhoods around the city. The mayor deflected when Cole asked how many city drug houses were planned. 

Kenney went all Sgt. Schultz — “I know nothing!” 

He wants the Not-Safe shooting galleries, but pretends there is a Colgate Invisible Shield between Safehouse and City Hall. As if they don’t conspire and plot together.

As the chosen South Philly location imploded, details leaked out. It was going to be open only four hours a day, weekdays only. And would serve — brace yourself — two or three people a day, said Safehouse vice president Ronda Goldfein.

You’ve heard of appointment TV? This is appointment drug abuse. Four hours a day, five days a week to get your clean needles and guidance about shooting up, if you are a newbie. And you must be 18 or older. Oh — no smoking because that is bad for you. But shooting up? No problem!

Let’s  pretend we are Andrew Yang and want to do the math.

Philly had 1,100 drug deaths last year (down slightly from the year before), this shooting gallery was going to be open five days a week, four hours a day, serving three people a day, and it would save up to 76 people a year?

Do you find that believable? 

Some say that saving even one life is worth it.

Let’s take a look at that.

Philadelphia has about 100 vehicular deaths each year — drivers, passengers, pedestrians, bicyclists.

We could cut that number to zero by reducing the speed limit to 5 m.p.h. 

We will not do that. Why?

There are limits to what we will do to save a life.

In the view of opponents to city-endorsed shooting galleries, the cost is too high. It is surrender to the horror of drug addiction.

Enabling drug addiction is immoral, that if we as a society really cared about drug zombies, we would make it harder, not easier, to inject poison into their veins. The “injection site” calms them, it gives the zombies a dangerous feeling of safety in their drug use. 

The Not-Safe operation would offer the zombies access to drug treatment. Social workers do that now when they find them where they are, on the street. Not many take the offer.

Instead of reviving them at a center after they OD and sending them on their way to do it again, arrest them for breaking drug laws and send them to rehab in a prison setting. 

Will it work? Will it take? 

Going cold turkey is very hard, but I would rather fail trying to do the right thing than succeed doing the wrong thing.