SF’s “tolerant” stance on substance abuse has trashed its Downtown?

San Francisco is just one Bay Area city facing urgent crime, homelessness, and drug crises. The NY Post’s Leighton Woodhouse argues that by decriminalizing the use of illicit substances, Woke SF governance inadvertently encourages addiction and criminal behavior.

Across San Francisco’s Downtown districts, rampant drug use and dealing has led to a surge in crime, overdoses and homelessness. With office workers staying home and residents fleeing for safer ground, only a major shift of political will can prevent the problems from getting worse.

Strange as it might sound to most non-San Franciscans, the kind of overt political opposition to open drug dealing that Dorsey and Jenkins represent is a challenge to the city’s political establishment. San Francisco is governed by a leadership that is so enamored of the city’s progressive, humanitarian self-image that the idea of enforcing basic laws — even ones that save people’s lives like controlling drug sales and consumption — has come to be regarded as reactionary. But conditions in the city have gotten so bad that San Francisco’s voters have begun to revolt. Living in a city whose downtown doubles as an outdoor drug den is becoming intolerable even for many notoriously tolerant San Franciscans. 

“Open drug use has been normalized to the point there are blocks where the entire sidewalk is filled with people passed out or getting high,” said Kevin Lee, a San Francisco resident who is in recovery himself. “There is not enough emphasis on creating access to treatment.” 

This article originally appeared in the New York Post. Read the whole thing here.

Follow Opportunity Now on Twitter @svopportunity

Image by Pix4free