Dakota Beacon

Recently the public health department in Grand Forks County proposed that they distribute clean needles for drug addicts in the city.  The proposed program would also provide for sanitary disposal.  This is in response to an increasing problem with drug use and attendant rises in hepatitis C, syphilis and other diseases as well as overdose crises.

No doubt this distribution program is offered with the best of intentions and in the hope of helping address a frightening acceleration of drug related crime and threats to the public health.  It is someone’s best effort to think outside the box. The belief is that enforcing the law is not practical and isn’t working. That might be true. But I just watched a documentary entitled, “Seattle Is Dying”.  It includes a large number of interviews with addicts, with shop owners, with parents, tourists, citizens, law enforcement officers, etc., and traces the progress of Seattle from a jewel of the Pacific Northwest to Hell.  

Many people recalled better times when they felt pride in their city, when it “worked”, when it was a good place to raise a family or go into business.  No one thinks it is today. The streets are lined with tent cities. Property crime has soared. According to 2017 statistics Seattle is second only to San Francisco in property crime among major U.S. cities.  San Francisco has experienced the same source of its issues - homelessness and drug abuse. Police are summoned but are not permitted to do anything about the problems. Presumably they are kept on the payroll to hassle the citizens who are minding their own business.  

Police claim that when they put themselves at risk to deal with the problem the courts do not support them and within hours the perpetrators, some of them violent and dangerous not only to police but to the rest of the citizens, are back on the street and back in business.  The city has passed laws which make it legal now to posses 3 grams of such things as methamphetamines. This is termed a “user’s” portion as opposed to a dealer’s. This represents 30 doses, according to the documentary. Drug dealers now simply limit the amount they carry on their persons and are scot-free to deal openly on the streets, in the parks, in the doorways.  The doorways are also used as latrines.  

The conclusion reached by most of the interviewees and the theme of the documentary seems to be that the tolerance of the early days of this led directly to the horrific conditions we see there today.  Visitors from other cities who were interviewed expressed shock that the city of Seattle would permit this - in their hometowns people would be arrested and jailed. No one would think of doing this in their communities.  This was once true of Seattle.   Some of us will remember the Seattle of "Frasier", a sophisticated, thriving city.

At some point the city decided to provide everything free for the homeless.  They earned the nickname “Freeattle” and this attracted those who followed this homeless, drug-addled lifestyle.  Where once there was a vibrant tourist and shopping destination businesses are now giving up and leaving.  They are left vulnerable to theft, violence and the disgusting conditions that have developed.  People no longer want to bring their children up there.  The bad has driven out the good in Seattle.

It is likely that if Grand Forks (and Valley City and Fargo, also trying this) embark on such a program as providing free needles and a “safe” place to get them, more such people will be attracted to the city.  It won’t solve the problem but will increase it.

It is true that these drug habits lead to dangerous health problems and the public has an interest in avoiding these.  But experience shows that making a comfortable place for people to do things to harm themselves and others will only cause more people to do these things.  Other means must be sought to deal with the issue if we are not to have Seattle/San Francisco conditions, complete with the incredible expense and misery.  

Helping people to harm themselves is not helping them.  This is called "enabling".  Is the Public Health Department going to become a sort of co-dependent?  One could argue that this isn’t helping them in the first place. It is even immoral to “help” people to harm themselves.  The drug dealers themselves are only “helping’’ them. The needle program is said to be privately funded. I would like to know a lot more about the people behind this program.  

Some communities - Providence, Rhode Island, was mentioned, have a different program, one of helping the addicts to get off of the street drugs by supplying them with legal drugs to break their addictions while they are serving prison sentences.  It appears to be a voluntary program. This undoubtedly has downsides as we don’t know everything about these drugs either. It’s not cheap but it might be cheaper than the alternative followed by San Francisco and Seattle, places which are now overrun by rats, littered with dirty needles and feces and subject to the violence and incessant rantings of it dangerous homeless population.  

Before Grand Forks takes this path perhaps the City Council should watch “Seattle Is Dying’ and consider whether this is something that we should pursue.  We should instead look at communities which have dealt more successfully with these problems. We do know one thing - we will have more of what we tolerate and reward.