San Francisco Wants to Help Junkies Shoot Up

I guess this is where all the Afghan opium is going to end up...

SAN FRANCISCO — City health officials took the first tentative steps toward opening America's first legal safe-injection room, where addicts could shoot up heroin, coc aine and other drugs under the supervision of nurses.

www.foxnews.com...


Seriously, how will the government be able to arrest anybody for possession if the same government allows possession in their own facility? I would think this is going to be an equal protection violation under the Constitution.

Or is this part of the overall plan to corner the opium market and legalize drugs in North America?

No, it's a plan to help prevent needless crime and transmission of AIDS and Hepatitis C and D. If the junkies have somewhere safe and private to go, hopefully they'll stop shooting up in public and leaving syringes all over the place. I've seen them do it. I'd prefer they had a clean haven away from somewhere my kid might play.

reply to post by MajorMalfunction


From a legal standpoint, how could they possibly justify NOT arresting the junkies and then go out and arrest anybody else for illegal possession?

That would violate the equal protection rights under the Constitution. The only way this could possibly work is if they legalized drugs, or stopped arresting anybody.

reply to post by robert z


Look these junkies are going to shoot up no matter what eh? And by providing them with a place that provides clean needles and disposes of them, the parks in San Fran won't look like the New Jersey shoreline with all the needles around the park. plus you will prevent the spread of AIDS, Hep A,B,C and other diseases that they could spread.

It works. I don't agree with thier choices, but sometimes you have to set that asside for the greater good.

Originally posted by FredT

Look these junkies are going to shoot up no matter what eh?

This statement defines the entire fallacy of this solution. The implication is that the addicts will never stop shooting up. I personally know 2 people who were addicts and nearly ruined their lives. They both turned their lives around. I will promise you that giving them a safe place to shoot up would not have helped them turn their lives around.

And by providing them with a place that provides clean needles and disposes of them, the parks in San Fran won't look like the New Jersey shoreline with all the needles around the park. plus you will prevent the spread of AIDS, Hep A,B,C and other diseases that they could spread.

It works. I don't agree with thier choices, but sometimes you have to set that asside for the greater good.

How is making San Francisco a magnet for junkies helping the greater good?

This is a very bad attempt to band aid the problem.

Good Luck, I can see the addicts dancing in the California sun singing that Tony Bennett tune

I got my fix...

In San Francisco..

Haven't these sort of "safe rooms" and needle hand-outs existed in Canada for a while now? It does help with preventing the spread of disease. As a previous poster said, I would much rather have them contained and in a safe place, rather then around the general public. As for arresting these people while they are there, this would constitute entrapment, would it not?

-Warlo

Originally posted by Warlo
Haven't these sort of "safe rooms" and needle hand-outs existed in Canada for a while now? It does help with preventing the spread of disease. As a previous poster said, I would much rather have them contained and in a safe place, rather then around the general public. As for arresting these people while they are there, this would constitute entrapment, would it not?

-Warlo

This will create an impossible legal situation. The Constitution provides an equal protection clause. It will be impossible to convict somebody of possession of illegal drugs if the same jurisdiction knowingly fails to arrest others of possessing the same drugs.

This is really a terrible idea, imo. How can the San Francisco schools teach kids to say no to drugs and then tell them if they cannot say no, they can go next door to shoot up?

I really think it is just plain wrong for the government to take tax money from working people to construct a building for drug addicts, who by definition are criminals, to shoot up.

reply to post by robert z

It will be impossible to convict somebody of possession of illegal drugs if the same jurisdiction knowingly fails to arrest others of possessing the same drugs.

It may be written, but not always true. I was almost arrested for possession of a small amount of marijuana when I was younger, until they asked me where I got it from. I gave them some random street corner where I supposedly got it from, and they let me go, hoping to catch and prosecute the "bigger fish."

-Warlo

i dont know all the pros and cons in this situation, but i can say, as a former raging haeroin addict (now in recovery). people are going to do these things anyway, wether they can get clean needles or not. so i would rather have people go somewhere they can get a clean rig, have nurses/doctors around incase of an overdose. and have a proper place to dispose of used needles rather than people sharing needles, digging through a diabetics trash for needles, or throwing them on the ground when they are done for other junkies to find or a child to step on. its a very sad thing, im glad to be out of it, but i can say from experience, people will find anyway they can to shoot up, safe or not. i think this is actually a good thing.

Junkies will only give up doing their drugs when THEY decide to, and not a minute before. So let's do the good old American thing of putting our heads under the blankets and pretending it's not there until it goes away.

In this case, it is not going away. We can do public health and safety a favor by removing these people from the streets when they do drugs, or we can pretend that these people don't exist and let all their social ills run loose where everyone can see them and act like they're invisible.

It is very unenlightened and also not very humanitarian to say, they'll stop so let's not make it safer for them and everyone else until they do.

Would you rather a junkie sit on your door step and shoot up where your kid might be able to see and leave his works in your hedge, or would you prefer he be off in a clean room somewhere you don't have to look at him and pick up his tainted needle afterwards?

Those are the real choices, not "they can stop whenever they want to." It's not that easy. I know, because I've been there. Meth, not heroin, but at least I know what I'm talking about instead of looking at a situation from the outside and passing judgment with no real understanding.

Enabling the users isn't an answer,

If the city really wants to be that generous and try to keep these addicts off the streets and needles off the playgrounds

How about a mandatory rehab program?

Arrest those who have fallen into the grips of addiction, sentence them to a 6 - 8 - 10 - 12 week (whatever it takes) detox and rehab program that might end up saving a few lives instead of feeding the addiction.

I understand that these addicts have a disease, the city should be doing more to cure their disease and stop spreading the disease.

If you start this type of program, you might end up seeing less and less needles in the neighborhood, and less and less addicts running the streets.

A lot of good people are hiding in their addiction wouldn't it be great if the city of San Francisco actually saved some of these lost souls?

How many junkies want to shoot up in a place that "The Man" has set up, in front of someone (a nurse?) who is watching them?

I honestly think it's a big waste of time and resources.

Also how could they justify arresting a man walking down the street drunk when the guy he just passed walking the other way just came out of the heroin room and is probably in much worse condition?

Originally posted by JacKatMtn

If the city really wants to be that generous and try to keep these addicts off the streets and needles off the playgrounds

How about a mandatory rehab program?

Rehab only works when the junkie wants to be rehabilitated. Mandatory rehab does absolutely nothing.

Enabling the users isn't an answer,

Where have I heard this before? Oh, yeah, teaching abstinence keeps teens from getting pregnant.

People need to get over trying to make other people -- especially junkies -- do things the way they think will work.

Unless you've lived on the streets and had an intravenous drug addiction, you will never understand.

Originally posted by MajorMalfunction
People need to get over trying to make other people -- especially junkies -- do things the way they think will work.

Unless you've lived on the streets and had an intravenous drug addiction, you will never understand.

You are assuming that these addicts are in complete control of their decision making process.

They are not.

They are addicts, and providing them the facilities to feed the addiction does nothing to solve their problem, although it might help clean up your local parks so your children can play, needle free.

No you don't have to be an ex-junkie to understand that these people need help and not the help that the fine city of SF is going to provide.

reply to post by MajorMalfunction


You make this way more complicated than it needs to be.

We live in a society, a community. To keep from having chaos, as a community we create rules that members of the community are expected to abide by. When people fail to abide by the rules, some sort of consequence is imposed by the community.

Run a red light? Get a tick. Drunk driving? Lose your license. Rob a bank? Go to jail?

Shoot up smack in San Francisco? Get welcomed to an air-conditioned lounge with cable television, magazines in the waiting room, and clean needles to enjoy your high, all paid for by your neighbors who are out busting their butts working all day while you shoot up.

Wonder what will be next? State run brothels for sex addicts?

I am laughing, i have heard about this propasl for a while, as we say, 'Only in San Fransikco, err, San Fransphyco, err, San FranStinko, err' , you get the point.

This is horrible and faulty logic at best. The people of SF of given up i guess, they don't want to adress the problem, they are just trying to correct the effects of the much larger problem, the HUGE homeless/junkie population in SF.

Rather then trying to stop this problem, they have given up, and said 'lets just make sure these Junkies only polute thier bobies, and not the enviorment'. What a joke. The article states that it will be a BYOH (bring your own heroin) policy, and no sale of drugs will take place of the premises. Well thats a releif!

If this place ever opens, there should be cops that are waiting outside of the premise and arrest these junkies! Whats next, giveing birth-control to pre-teens, oh snap, Maine already beat them to that, i guess SF will have to settle for giveing it to 8 year old! (Who am i kidding, this is San Fransicko, insted of giving condoms to kids, they will probaly give 8 years olds strap-ons!)

This nation is on a sliperly slope, and SF is just the spear head of the perversion, these polocies are going to spread across the nation.

Coming soon to a corner near you, San Fransikco Family values!

Can we all say thank you Nancy Pelosi?

San Francisco - you asked for it, you got it.

The only thing new here is that these junkies now have a nice place to go shoot up!!!

This is just an addition to the Methodone Programs that were started to "help these poor addicted people"

Well, how much more in taxes am I going to have to pay to support this program which will turn into a failure just like the methodone program.

Yep, this is the way to handle this problem.

reply to post by MajorMalfunction

Junkies will only give up doing their drugs when THEY decide to, and not a minute before. So let's do the good old American thing of putting our heads under the blankets and pretending it's not there until it goes away.

Hmm, so the way you see it is if we just sit back and pretend this problem does not exist, it will just go away?
I am sorry to have to tell you that this problem will keep persisting. They will still be free to shoot up in the parks and those areas, but now they have a taxpayer funded building to add to their list. They already have government funded rehabilitation centers. They do not want to go to rehab until their ready? What if they are never ready?

They've had clean needle heroin centers in Europe for decades, has Europe collapsed? No.
Most of the comments about any progression in the drug policies of the United States are fear based ignorance.

But for the paranoid, here's a thought, if you were an evil government willing to spread a new and virulent disease like MRSA, whats an easy way to do it? Might I suggest a clean needle heroin center?

Heroin is currently cheaper than cigarettes, cheaper than milk, good thing we liberated Afghanistan.