CV NEWS FEED // Pro drug activists focused on so-called “reducing harm” rather than recovery are destroying Black neighborhoods in Philadelphia, says an original report published by The Free Press on April 8.
The Biden-endorsed policy of harm reduction, which currently holds a disputed presence in Philadelphia, “prioritizes users’ safety over their sobriety or abstinence,” the report stated, noting that while its activists “say they’re helping fix the problem,” dozens of the city’s residents expressed belief that “the activists are actually the ones causing it.”
“They threw our black asses in jail,” Philadelphia native Jonja Bingham told Free Press reporter Olivia Reingold when describing the US government’s past approach to the city’s opioid crisis. “Now that the color of the addicts has changed, they’re going to meet them where they are in our community and allow them to destroy it.”
Reduction harm activists in Philadelphia neighborhoods such as Kensington are known by locals to pass out sandwiches, narcan, fentanyl test strips, and clean needles. Many of the activists, the locals stated in the report, are white.
“A growing chorus of Kensington homeowners, entrepreneurs, and even a city council member—many of them lifelong Democrats—told me that for too long, Philadelphia has offered harm reduction as the single solution to its opioid crisis,” Reingold pointed in the article.
She further noted that while harm reduction can mean handing out fentanyl test strips and clean needles, it can also mean “safe injection sites,” where volunteers assist drug addicts in the process of injection, and following in Canada’s footsteps to supply addicts with “medical grade heroin.”
“There, as in Kensington, overdose rates have continued to reach record highs since instating these protocols,” Reingold added.
Last month, according to local reports, harm reduction activists held a demonstration outside Philadelphia City Hall to protest against policy makers advocating for a decrease in support for harm reduction services, and an increase in policing measures to address the city’s drug crisis.
In 2022, Philadelphia had a record 1,413 drug overdose related deaths according to the city’s Department of Public Health.
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