Radical Democrats are normalizing drug use and 'corrupting rehabilitation': Shellenberger
Michael Shellenberger, author of 'San Fransicko: Why Progressives Ruin Cities,' explains the consequences of drug-use sites popping up in liberal cities, calling them an 'abomination,' on 'Tucker Carlson Tonight.
Author Michael Shellenberger blasted a radical left solution to mitigating drug abuse and addiction through places such as the San Francisco Linkage Center, which he said allows users to shoot up in a controlled environment, on "Tucker Carlson Tonight" Tuesday.
"How can you say you care about people if you help them shoot heroin?," host Tucker Carlson asked.
A person holds a syringe they say contains a hit of heroin as they sit on the sidewalk in the Tenderloin district on June 13, 2018, in San Francisco, Calif. (Photo By Lea Suzuki/The San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images)
Shellenberger replied, "[The] linkage center that's aimed at linking homeless drug addicts to rehab clinics [has] now been completely perverted. They've opened a center where literally city contractors are overseeing young people smoking meth and fentanyl … It's really quite disappointing."
At the time the Linkage Center opened, Democratic San Francisco Mayor London Breed said it would "create a space for people who are struggling with addiction and other challenges to get immediate support, and then transition into longer-term care and housing."
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Man holds a piece of foil containing Fentanyl in the Tenderloin district of San Francisco, Calif. June 21, 2019. (Photo by Jessica Christian/San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images)
"I actually defended Mayor Breed … for promising a crackdown back in December. The whole thing is now in shambles. It's an embarrassment to San Francisco," Shellenberger said.
"They're normalizing drug use. And by the way, they're justifying this by pointing to … Europe," he said.
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Shellenberger interviewed policy experts in Europe who indicated the radical left approach to drug treatment in the U.S. was not a reflection of Europe's approach.
Homeless people in the Tenderloin district on October 30, 2021. (Photo by Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
"It's really an abomination … I'm sort of still shocked by it. They're attempting to normalize this. They're attempting to make it seem okay for people to just freely smoke some of the most dangerous drugs, the drugs that are killing two people in San Francisco per day."
"They're corrupting rehabilitation," he concluded.
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