The research disagrees with you here. A 2021 review of past studies indicated that on average crime decreased in the areas near a safe injection site and people more often took up addiction treatment. https://sci-hub.st/10.1016/j.amepre.2021.04.017

The paper actually claims crime didn't increase (which is different to decreasing). Some of the studies they surveyed at saw a decrease in crime.

In the US it's obvious to anyone with eyes that cities that encourage/support drug use have a much worse environment (SF, LA, Seattle). Drug users are literally given free rides by neighboring areas into these cities.

I don't think it's the drugs. I think there's societal norms (some of which will get expressed via public policy, many don't) that the people who vote to legalize drugs bring with them that are a necessary perquisite for widespread petty crime.

Even cities known for being "rough" at their peak during the crack epidemic didn't have the brazen broad daylight property theft that plagues certain cities today. There's something about.

Heck, even today I don't think you could just break into a car and start stealing shit in a bad part of St. Louis without exposing yourself to some serious occupational hazards from passers by. It seems like on the west coast (and a couple places out east too) the biggest risk you run is people whipping out their phones and filming you.

If those other areas didn't export their drug users to the big cities, what would the situation be in the big cities? It's like if drinking was only allowed in New Orleans, wouldn't all the drunks and abusers of alcohol go there? That doesn't mean that drinking creates that problem. People take other drugs already.

I'd love to see a study correlating drug tolerance with a worse environment. Until then, this sounds like conjecture. (good point about the crime decreasing vs staying the same, though, I missed that nuance)

Can you elaborate on the "social engineering utopia" I allegedly described? Sounds intriguing.

Don't feed the trolls.