The Cities That Said Yes to Drugs
The author reports on the severe public health and safety issues in Seattle, attributing the rise of open-air drug markets to harm-reduction policies. The piece describes the degradation of public parks and neighborhoods due to widespread fentanyl use.
Why it matters
This highlights the ongoing national debate over the efficacy of 'harm reduction' drug policies versus traditional law enforcement approaches.
Seattle’s Jose Rizal Park has become a favorite spot for addicts to smoke and inject fentanyl. Ideas The Cities That Said Yes to Drugs Policies that gave addicts clean needles and places to use drugs were intended to reduce harm. They created a “zombie apocalypse.”
Save Listen − 1.0 x + Seek 0:00 33:23 Late last year , I walked roughly a mile from downtown Seattle to the working-class neighborhood of Little Saigon and came upon a montage of human despair. An open-air drug market stretched along the intersection of 12th and Jackson: about 250 people, many smoking fentanyl or bent over in the thrall of the drug, tilting as if mid-fall. Three women lay passed out on the sidewalk, their chests slowly rising and falling, while fellow addicts stepped over them and dealers made sales. Young boys, schoolbags on their backs, stood on a far corner and watched.
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