Friend,

As someone in recovery and who grew up with a parent who did drugs, I know how addiction can make life challenging not only for the person struggling, but for the people around them. Many of my colleagues at Drug Policy Alliance have similar stories. We have lost loved ones to overdose. We are in recovery. We use drugs. We have experienced the harms of drug criminalization.  

The conversation on public suffering, homelessness, and the overdose crisis is personal to us. We want to save and improve lives. And it will take hard work to repair over fifty years of failed drug war policies of punishment and disinvestment. Media and politician talking points are dominated by the false promise that the solution is simple - that criminalization will be some silver bullet to the suffering we see in our communities. But criminalization didn’t work before. And it will not work now. 

Just this week, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) and The New York Times (NYT) published articles that claim the suffering of people in the streets of Portland and San Francisco are signs that local drug decriminalization or progressive drug laws have failed. Yet the issues of homelessness and overdose have been crises across the U.S for decades, in liberal and conservative communities alike.

The NYT article blames Prop 47, which reduced drug possession from a felony to a misdemeanor, for contributing to a rise in overdose deaths in California. The WSJ piece blames Measure 110, which decriminalized small possession of drugs, for the rise of overdose deaths in Oregon. The truth is, in both cases, you can’t blame a state or local policy for a national issue. In fact, a recent JAMA study found no evidence that Oregon’s drug decriminalization law led to an increase in fatal overdose rates in the state. 

In 2022, overdose deaths rose nationally. San Francisco DA Jenkins promised to strongly enforce “drug crime laws,” yet overdose deaths did not go down once she came to power. In fact, they increased. Why isn’t this part of the story? Meanwhile, in Washington, drug possession was decriminalized for five months in 2021. When the state recriminalized drugs, overdose rates still increased. It’s irresponsible of both the NYT and WSJ to misrepresent the impacts of Prop 47 and Measure 110 on overdose deaths. Especially when we know that criminalization increases overdose deaths, and blocks needed health-based interventions.  

The NYT article inaccurately states: “But to the extent San Francisco’s leaders could have come together to create a comprehensive drug policy plan, they never did.” In fact, there is a plan, and it is gathering dust! Mayor Breed, other city moderates, and community leaders agreed to it. It includes important interventions such as broadening overdose prevention services (i.e., naloxone, fentanyl test strips, drug checking, and safe consumption) and expanding access and removing barriers to treatment for opioid use disorder. The problem is that city leaders, including Mayor Breed, go for the politically expedient “easy fix” of criminalization and punishment rather than evidence-based public health solutions. We’re seeing the same “easy fix” strategy in Oregon, where drug decriminalization is under threat and could be rolled back.  

Some politicians—desperate to evade responsibility for their roles in public suffering and get re-elected—are instead punching down on the people suffering. Media attention needs to be directed at the government failures that have led to these overlapping overdose and unhoused crises. Media outlets like NYT and WSJ need to write that story. And when they are done, let’s talk about real solutions, not false promises of change.  

We need to centralize responses to people on the streets: increasing street outreach, creating community-led crisis-response teams, increasing access to evidence-based treatment, and allowing overdose prevention centers (which bring drug use indoors, and allow for connections to care).  

If you care about the facts and real change, read our new fact sheet on “The Real Causes and Solutions to Public Suffering, Including Public Drug Use.”  And pass it on to your favorite journalist.