Even as the number of overdoses and drug-related deaths in the U.S. continues to climb, many prominent leftists believe an appropriate response to the problem involves giving addicts more places to get high.
There are already so-called “safe-injection” sites in multiple major cities and, although they are prohibited under federal law, the Biden administration has indicated that it seeks to regulate the controversial practice of giving people a place to use illicit drugs, ostensibly under the supervision of a medical professional.
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas recently claimed that it is “very important” to provide such facilities for drug addicts.
The White House’s position is not popular among many Americans, however, including the nonprofit group North America Recovers. In a new series of digital ads, the organization is making its case against injection sites with a plea aimed directly at the president.
One ad features a woman referencing Biden’s son in hopes of convincing him that “government drug sites” are not the answer.
“Please help my son escape addiction the way you helped Hunter,” the ad states.
North America Recovers elaborates on its position on its website, explaining that “Biden will soon be making a decision on whether or not to legalize drug consumption rooms, or supervised injection sites, where taxpayer-funded healthcare workers supervise anyone over the age of 18 to inject or smoke fentanyl and other hard drugs, under federal law.”
Instead of injection sites, the group is calling for “a recovery-focused system for addressing our addiction crisis” that involves “allocating more sufficient funding to ensure access to evidence-based intervention, treatment, and recovery programs.”
Making the case against drug consumption sites, the organization concluded that they put “the cart before the horse” by shifting the “focus away from a recovery-oriented policy that enables more people to get off drugs and reshape their lives.”
Additionally, the website notes that such sites “are almost always unfairly situated in economically depressed areas, often communities of color, and further attract open-air drug selling, drug use, and increased crime.”
Aside from Biden’s defense of this controversial response, many critics of the current administration have pointed to an ongoing border crisis as a key factor in the rise of drug addiction and overdoses.
As a new member of the Homeland Security Committee, I will help to secure the U.S.-Mexico border and reduce the deadly fentanyl coming across every day. #NY01
— Congressman Nick LaLota (@RepLaLota) January 23, 2023
Less than a year into Biden’s term, U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) referenced the “deliberate political decisions” of the administration that have allowed fentanyl and other narcotics to flood across the border.
“What’s so maddening is this crisis is man-made,” he said at the time.
