De Blasio’s ‘OD prevention’ shooting galleries just one more kick in the pants for NYC
Homeless men doing drugs on the sidewalk on 35th Street near 8th Avenue on September 2, 2021 New York’s worst mayor ever just couldn’t resist giving the town one more kick on the way out the door, in search of progressive cred: a pair of first-in-the-nation, city-sponsored, bring-your-own-drugs, no-questions-asked-and-no-judgments-rendered shooting galleries.
Why on earth is the city facilitating, heck, encouraging this kind of irresponsible behavior by making these centers available? What kind of message does that send?
Hizzoner says the point is to cut down on overdose deaths, of which there were more than 2,000 in the city during the fiscal year ending April 1, up 40 percent from the previous year.
New York Mayor Bill de Blasio (L) launched the country's first legal shooting galleries Tuesday. 5 addicts overdosed
New York Mayor Bill de Blasio (L) launched the country's first legal shooting galleries Tuesday. 5 addicts overdosed
To that end, two shooting galleries have already opened, one in East Harlem and the other in Washington Heights, and at least two more are planned. Clean needles and other amenities are provided, though addicts must supply their own drugs. Which means they’ll be scrounging, stealing and who-knows-what-else to pay for their fix.
Sure, there’s not much sadder than the slow-motion suicide of hard-drug addiction. Who doesn’t want to prevent fatal ODs? But outright municipal abetment is something else, and this is precisely what the city is doing.
Officials claim to be offering addicts treatment and other assistance. But how realistic is that, given that the point of the exercise is to show up, shoot up and nod off all with the city’s moral seal of approval? Indeed, there’s no evidence these prevention actually work even in curbing deaths.
The city could be stepping up its emphasis on, say, counseling, methadone, rehab programs. Or cracking down of drug traffickers. Cleaning up the streets and enforcing low-level offenses, so there’s a sense that crime — including illegal drug sales and possession — will not be tolerated. Alas, no such luck.
No, de Blasio latest brainstorm isn’t a solution, it’s a surrender. And the city, and even the drug addicts themselves, will pay a steep price.
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