I imagine the government needs to be involved because it's federally illegal. Having the state have your back is handy.

Otherwise, it's both safer for the people doing the injection, they are put in touch with people and tools to quit, and the needles are disposed of rather than being left on the street.

It's a societal benefit to have fewer people with addiction, safer streets, and fewer hospital trips due to overdose/people being dangerous while high. Thus the government makers more sense as the organizer than anything else

Where I live, something like half of all addicts on the street are struggling with mental health issues and self-medicating to cope. If we can address that directly, it would greatly help.

Seems like a rosy distraction away from the key driver of increased overdoses: the opioid epidemic.

As a New Yorker I’m reflexively skeptical about all things California, BUT I really don’t like seeing people shooting up on the streets. There are a lot of knock on problems and we’ve seen that prisons don’t fix this problem. I’m willing to try more of this, seeing the positive-ish results in other places.

I live a few blocks from the safe injection site in SF. People shoot up on the sidewalk literally feet away from the entrance. It’s possible that fewer people shoot up on the street overall, but my personal experience at least is that it’s had no impact.

I'd be interested to know if there are any stats on that. I also feel like SF is going to have a hard time moving the needle on this issue with any one policy change.

Vancouver, Canada has had something called “Insite” and other safe injection sites since 2003. People still shoot up on the streets.

Safe injection has helped to reduce overdose related deaths and to reduce the spread of diseases through dirty needles.

Like anything, it’s not a silver bullet to solve the problem.

I'm fine with small wins, especially if they reduce the burden on emergency services.

The problem city governments have is all the problems caused by laws passed by state and federal politicians who live in 'nice upscale places with cops that run off anyone that looks dodgy' end up being an open in your face problem for cities.