Thread by @shellenberger

This barbarism. Why do the progressives who run our cities allow it? Because they believe arresting him and mandating drug treatment is worse than letting him die on the sidewalk without dignity.

Yes, that is the actual reason. And yes, it is as stupid as it sounds.

https://twitter.com/cleanupwestsoma/status/1454267721403666435

The big lie is that San Francisco lets ~700 people/year die totally preventable drug deaths, including on the street, because it lacks the money to help them.

But SF spends over $100,000 per homeless person. That’s more than enough to pay for 90 days of court-ordered rehab

The official line from the people who are directly responsible for allowing 700+ of our fellow humans to die on sidewalks, rather than receive mandated treatment, is that “homelessness is caused by poverty, high rents & lack of housing.” They want us to believe our eyes are lying

I was told by the people who are directly responsible for preventing life-saving medical treatment to dying addicts that the reason for San Francisco’s “homeless” problem is because Ronald Reagan slashed federal housing funding. In the 1980s.

Progressive activists and journalists have lied to the American people about what they do in Portugal and Amsterdam and other nations. In those places, police arrest addicts who break the law, to save their lives, and coerce or mandate treatment as alternative to jail.

I traveled to Amsterdam and discovered the truth, and recorded a video interview with the head of Portugal’s drug program to debunk the lies

https://twitter.com/ShellenbergerMD/status/1415345836913922054

The idea that you need to arrest addicts who break laws, and offer them the choice of jail or rehab, has been the mainstream one in civilized nations for decades.

The idea that it is better to let their addiction worsen, and rely solely on Narcan, has never worked anywhere.

I’m not messing around. San Fransicko is the evidentiary foundation for our campaign to change the sick ideological policies directly responsible for letting hundreds of people die annually. I have presented my findings to the SF Grand Jury. I will present them to US Justice Dept

Anybody who has seen what we have done over the last decade to change attitudes and policies around nuclear energy will know that we are not messing around. We will do the same on drugs. It won’t take 10 years. What is happening in progressive cities is obviously failed & immoral

Progressive leaders in San Francisco defend the gruesome status quo by repeating easily-debunked myths eg “not enough money,” “Reagan,” etc

Progressive activists tried to bully me after I reported the truth. They failed. But such tactics have worked on many others for decades.

The mayors of some liberal cities, such as Boston, are standing up to dogmatic harm reduction-only activists and mandating treatment.

It’s helped that The Boston Globe has covered the open drug scene honestly, as driven by addiction, for weeks

Progressives in Boston are trying to stop the mayor. As usual, they are abusing their status as doctors to grossly misrepresent their fringe views as mainstream. As usual, they know nothing of what Europe does. As usual, they are motivated by ideology, not what works in practice.

In cities across the US, including SF, Denver, Austin, and NYC, there is a battle between moderates and progressives. The progressives have for 25 years been heavily-funded by billionaires, and well-organized, in comparison to moderates, but that’s starting to change

In the name of ending racial disparities in incarceration we’ve allowed much worse racial disparities in drug deaths & drug dealing

It’s not complicated. Enforce laws. Offer treatment on demand & as an alternative to jail. Shelter first, housing earned. Universal psych & rehab

Liberals let our thinking and emotions be hijacked by progressive (radical Left) ideologues who demanded that we deny the role of addiction & make housing a right. They promoted “Housing First” over what is proven to work, which is abstinent-contingent housing.

“If you just give a carrot, you get spoiled people. If you give an addicted person just the carrots you’ll be addicted”