Two Democratic cities are rethinking the implementation of relaxed drug policies after a rise in accidental fatal overdoses of fentanyl has plagued the country.
Philadelphia and San Francisco are both considering changing their approaches to the decriminalization of drugs. Oregon, a Democratic stronghold, has also experienced sharp backlash to their softening of drug laws throughout the state.
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San Francisco’s mayor recently announced a plan to make homeless people undergo drug testing in order to receive resources. If the person fails the test, they will need to go to rehab to get the resources. In Philadelphia, the city council appears ready to overturn a veto that allowed safe places for addicts to get high under the supervision of a trained professional. However, some people have pushed back against open drug use and decriminalization of drugs.
“It’s not that people hate people who use drugs, but they want to be able to just walk their kids to school and to park their cars and not be robbed,” Keith Humphreys, a drug policy expert at Stanford University, told Axios. “When they can’t, they get upset, and it’s right to get upset.”
A poll of Oregon voters showed that the majority of respondents, 56%, want to see Measure 110, which decriminalized drug use and allotted tax dollars earned from the selling of marijuana to drug treatment programs, repealed just a few years after the measure was implemented in 2020. A majority, 64%, also said they believed criminal consequences for the possession of hard drugs should be put back in place, according to KGW8.
The more relaxed atmosphere in liberal cities is the opposite of conservative states, which have been cracking down on fentanyl and the illegal flow of the substance into the country. One problem with fentanyl is that many can be unaware that they are consuming the drug due to it being laced with less dangerous substances. The red states, however, have enacted stronger anti-drug laws that even allow people to be charged with homicide if they supply drugs that lead to fatal overdoses.
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A recent study found that overdose deaths caused by fentanyl-laced stimulants have increased by 50 times their 2010 rate, according to new research from the University of California, Los Angeles.
Stimulants like cocaine and methamphetamine can often be laced with fentanyl, and in 2021, those drugs became the most common vehicle for fentanyl-related overdose deaths. Experts have warned that not only does the consumption of multiple drugs increase the risk of overdose on its own, but the mixture can also be less responsive to the opioid overdose reversal drug naloxone.
