Taxpayer Funded Heroin Injection Sites in California?

Politico has this story on the proposal for California to provide on-site medical care for individuals injecting illicit drugs, including, but not limited to heroin. The goal of SB 57 (Wiener, D San Francisco) is also to obtain immunity from federal enforcement for the professionals running the program and the drug-users. The most recent proposal awaiting legislative approval is for the California  cities of San Francisco, Oakland and Los Angeles to open and run these injection sites for five years to “test” the model. 

The proposed motivator to incorporate this model into California is to prevent drug overdoses. It is unclear what Governor Newsom’s current stance is on injection sites, but there was mention of his openness to safe injection sites during his campaign for governor in 2018.  Newsom has a track record of being a leader who supports controversial laws on social issues, so it would come as no surprise if he were to approve this law.  According to Assemblymember Rudy Salas, “I do not believe that opening sites to allow hard drug use is the best use of taxpayer resources. I would rather see increased investment in mental health and substance abuse treatment to get people off of drugs and off of the streets.” Many also argue that overdose deaths will continue whether to not ‘safe injection’ sites are established or not.