{"id":1819417,"date":"2023-01-22T11:05:34","date_gmt":"2023-01-22T16:05:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1819417"},"modified":"2023-01-22T11:08:42","modified_gmt":"2023-01-22T16:08:42","slug":"howard-husock-why-new-york-citys-drug-death-epidemic-is-no-surprise","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/howard-husock-why-new-york-citys-drug-death-epidemic-is-no-surprise\/","title":{"rendered":"Howard Husock: Why New York City\u2019s Drug Death Epidemic Is No Surprise"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">24<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fhoward-husock-why-new-york-citys-drug-death-epidemic-is-no-surprise%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1819417&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><br \/>\n<aside class=\"single__inline-module alignleft\">\n<\/aside>\n<p>New York City&#8217;s drug overdose deaths have reached a record. This is no surprise.\u00a0As reported by the city Department of Health last week, 2,668 New Yorkers died from overdoses in 2021 \u2013 the logical (and deadly) result of a failed approach by \u201cpublic health\u201d authorities to the City\u2019s fentanyl epidemic. While the data does not reveal every cause of this spike, this wave of death makes clear that the city\u2019s endorsement of safe drug use, or harm reduction,\u00a0has failed.<\/p>\n<p>In fact, acceptance and acquiescence lead to death. Anyone looking for public health campaigns that actually work?<em> Discourage<\/em> drug use \u2014 similar to the high-profile prime-time ads warning against cigarette smoking \u2014 would have looked in vain this past year in New York City.<\/p>\n<p>Instead, last May, passengers on subways and buses were treated to the city\u2019s \u201cLet\u2019s Talk Fentanyl\u201d campaign.\u00a0 It was more of an instruction than a warning.\u00a0\u201cStart with a small dose and go slowly,\u201d One sign urged. One poster stated that it was important to always have naloxone on hand as an overdose prevention drug. The possibility that high-fentanyl users might not act responsibly is not something that occurred to the public&#8217;s health. \u201cauthorities\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2023\/01\/lets-talk-fentanyl-campaign-subway-03.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"695\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/lets-talk-fentanyl-campaign-subway-03.jpg\" alt=\"One of the many posters from the Dept. of Health&#039;s recent &#039;Let&#039;s Talk Fentanyl&#039; subway campaign. True, such messages can inform users how to prevent overdoses, but they do little to actually get addicts into treatment.\" class=\"wp-image-25425669\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2023\/01\/lets-talk-fentanyl-campaign-subway-03.jpg?quality=75&#038;strip=all&#038;w=1535 1536w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2023\/01\/lets-talk-fentanyl-campaign-subway-03.jpg?quality=75&#038;strip=all 1024w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2023\/01\/lets-talk-fentanyl-campaign-subway-03.jpg?quality=75&#038;strip=all&#038;w=512 512w\"   style=\"display:none\"><\/a><figcaption>One of the many posters that the Dept. of Health\u2019s recent \u2018Let\u2019s Talk Fentanyl\u2019 subway campaign. Although such messages may be helpful in preventing overdoses, they are not effective in getting addicts to seek treatment. <\/figcaption><figcaption><span class=\"credit\">BRIGITTE STELZER<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2023\/01\/harlem-injecitons-01.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"682\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/harlem-injecitons-01.jpg\" alt=\"Users shooting up in front of the Harlem \" safe \/><\/a><figcaption>Users pose for photographs in front of Harlem \u201csafe\u201d injection site. The area has not had much success in getting addicts back on track. It has also negatively impacted the nearby neighborhood.<\/figcaption><figcaption><span class=\"credit\">J.C.Rice<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>This campaign was launched after the opening of two so called &#8220;food courts&#8221; in downtown. \u201csafe injection sites\u201d \u2014 pseudo-health clinics to which opioid users may bring illegal street drugs and shoot up under supervision. These two locations, one in East Harlem, and one in Washington Heights are illegal under federal law. \u201ccontrolled substance\u201d They are not required by law but the city still approves and funds them. <\/p>\n<p>Most crucially, these sites do little to actually discourage drug use or encourage drug treatment \u2014 the most effective measures against rising drug deaths.\u00a0As <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/newyork\/news\/onpoint-nyc-east-harlem-washington-heights-overdose-prevention-sites\/\">CBS2 New York reporter Jessi Mitchell<\/a> uncovered at the supervised injection site\u00a0OnPointNYC in Harlem, there are no serious effort to monitor any decline in drug consumption. \u201cHow are you tracking the actual reduction of drug use?\u201d Sam Rivera was the director. \u201cThat\u2019s difficult. It really is. It\u2019s a challenge. So for us, it\u2019s anecdotal,\u201d Rivera replied.\u00a0<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2023\/01\/filled-syringe-playground-01.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"576\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/filled-syringe-playground-01.jpg\" alt=\"A syringe-filled playground close to the Harlem \" safe \/><\/a><figcaption>Close to Harlem, a syringe-filled playground \u201csafe\u201d injection site illustrates the severe impact such facilities can have on a community\u2019s quality of life. <\/figcaption><figcaption><span class=\"credit\">@harlemvoice\/Twitter<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>It was a pilot program with no clear checks and balances.\u00a0Officials from the city report that it is a proof-of-concept. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ny1.com\/nyc\/all-boroughs\/news\/2022\/01\/24\/supervised-injection-sites-avert-over-100-overdoses--organization-says#:~:text=Officials%20report%20that%20585%20people,used%20the%20locations%204%2C974%20times.\">that 585 people have registered at the sites and have used the locations 4,974 times<\/a>. What we don\u2019t know is how many would have chosen <em>Not <\/em>You can inject yourself without the approval of the city. What we don\u2019t report is the effect on the quality of life of the surrounding neighborhoods, which have become magnets for open-air drug use, often in front of school children passing by on their way to school.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Yet the city\u2019s arbiters of culture, as well as its officials, appear to be on board with this institutional lack of accountability. \u00a0Its compassionate reporting on a Harlem woman who used heroin for 40-years shows its understanding. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2023\/01\/13\/nyregion\/new-york-overdose-record.html\">the New York Times essentially endorsed the safe injection approach,<\/a> Rennee Jones, a South Bronx grandmother, felt marginalized by her family \u201ccommunity\u201d Recovery periods for drug addicts \u201cWhen I sit around people that are getting high and I\u2019m clean,\u201d She said: \u201cI feel like the outcast.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2023\/01\/housing-works-cannabis-dispensary-05.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"682\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/housing-works-cannabis-dispensary-05.jpg\" alt=\"New York City&#039;s first-ever legal cannabis dispensary, which opened recently in Greenwich Village. A delay in granting dispensary licenses has resulted in a boom of illegal pot shops citywide.\" class=\"wp-image-25425728\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2023\/01\/housing-works-cannabis-dispensary-05.jpg?quality=75&#038;strip=all&#038;w=1535 1536w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2023\/01\/housing-works-cannabis-dispensary-05.jpg?quality=75&#038;strip=all 1024w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2023\/01\/housing-works-cannabis-dispensary-05.jpg?quality=75&#038;strip=all&#038;w=512 512w\" \/><\/a><figcaption>New York City\u2019s first-ever legal cannabis dispensary, which opened recently in Greenwich Village. The city has seen a surge in illegal pot shops due to delays in issuing dispensary licenses. <\/figcaption><figcaption><span class=\"credit\">Robert Miller<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>No serious consideration of the subway campaign \u2014 or safe injection sites \u2014 could fail to connect them to the rise in overdose deaths. Officials predict that these deaths will only increase.\u00a0This trajectory is particularly worrisome considering what\u2019s happened in San Francisco, a once-shining city where drug-addicted homeless now line the sidewalks and safe-injections sites have morphed into full-fledged encampments.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Pot advocates, of course, distinguish between weed and fentanyl \u2013 and they should. They miss the point, however: That the pursuit of pleasure is not necessarily the same thing as the pursuit of happiness \u2014 the latter often the product of achievements such as holding a job and building a family.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2023\/01\/housing-works-cannabis-dispensary-06.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"682\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/housing-works-cannabis-dispensary-06.jpg\" alt=\"New York&#039;s clumsy marijuana roll-out has also left the city awash it pot smoke, even though nearly all of the drug&#039;s sales points are operating illegally.\" class=\"wp-image-25425807\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2023\/01\/housing-works-cannabis-dispensary-06.jpg?quality=75&#038;strip=all&#038;w=1535 1536w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2023\/01\/housing-works-cannabis-dispensary-06.jpg?quality=75&#038;strip=all 1024w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2023\/01\/housing-works-cannabis-dispensary-06.jpg?quality=75&#038;strip=all&#038;w=512 512w\" \/><\/a><figcaption>New York\u2019s clumsy marijuana roll-out has also left the city awash it pot smoke, even though nearly all of the drug\u2019s sales points are operating illegally. <\/figcaption><figcaption><span class=\"credit\">Robert Miller<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>It is important to connect the dots between overdose deaths, the slow rollout of legalized marijuana in New York State and the misdirected rollout.\u00a0The state let hundreds of unlicensed pot shops spring up in cities across the country by legalizing marijuana before it granted legal licenses.\u00a0Not only do these businesses impact quality of life, their proliferation also reflects, again, state approval of drug use \u2014 in this case in pursuit of increased tax revenues.<\/p>\n<p>Messages sent by authorities matter \u2014 and can prove effective.\u00a0 Back during the\u00a0 Bloomberg Administration, the city\u2019s Human Resources Administration\u00a0mounted a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nyc.gov\/office-of-the-mayor\/news\/082-13\/mayor-bloomberg-deputy-mayor-gibbs-human-resources-administration-commissioner-doar-announce\">subway and bus campaign<\/a> 2013 warning against teenage motherhood, which was linked to poverty for families and even imprisonment for children. Is it not a coincidence that from 2000 to 2015, during two socially conservative mayoralties? <a href=\"https:\/\/www1.nyc.gov\/assets\/doh\/downloads\/pdf\/epi\/databrief98.pdf\">the pregnancy rate among New York City residents ages 15 to 19 declined 60% and the number of teen-pregnancies dropped by more than 16,000.<\/a><\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2023\/01\/lets-talk-fentanyl-campaign-6.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"791\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/lets-talk-fentanyl-campaign-6.jpg\" alt=\"Another outtake from the &#039;Let&#039;s Talk Fentanyl&#039; campaign, which suggests there are responsible ways to consume deadly narcotics.\" class=\"wp-image-25426027\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2023\/01\/lets-talk-fentanyl-campaign-6.jpg?quality=75&#038;strip=all&#038;w=1582 1582w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2023\/01\/lets-talk-fentanyl-campaign-6.jpg?quality=75&#038;strip=all&#038;w=1187 1186w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2023\/01\/lets-talk-fentanyl-campaign-6.jpg?quality=75&#038;strip=all&#038;w=791 791w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2023\/01\/lets-talk-fentanyl-campaign-6.jpg?quality=75&#038;strip=all&#038;w=396 395w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2023\/01\/lets-talk-fentanyl-campaign-6.jpg?quality=75&#038;strip=all 1024w\" \/><\/a><figcaption>Another take from the \u2018Let\u2019s Talk Fentanyl\u2019 campaign, which suggests there are responsible ways to consume deadly narcotics. <\/figcaption><figcaption><span class=\"credit\">NYC<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Ending New York\u2019s fentanyl epidemic won\u2019t be easy, but the City seems to be doing all it can to make this process even harder. The Department of Health has almost preordained that drug-overdose deaths will exceed record levels in 2023.  It\u2019s not a record for which any city should feel proud.<\/p>\n<p><em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.aei.org\/profile\/howard-husock\/\">Howard Husock <\/a>Is a Senior Fellow in Domestic Policy Studies with the American Enterprise Institute.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>New York City&#8217;s drug overdose deaths have reached a record. This is no surprise.\u00a0As reported by the city Department of Health last week, 2,668 New Yorkers died from overdoses in 2021 \u2013 the logical (and deadly) result of a failed approach by \u201cpublic health\u201d authorities to the City\u2019s fentanyl epidemic. While the data does not &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1819420,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[547],"tags":[5458,8170,6499,5642,7266,8541,15998,3819,14728,3859],"class_list":["post-1819417","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-bongino-report","tag-bongino","tag-citys","tag-death","tag-drug","tag-epidemic","tag-howard","tag-husock","tag-report","tag-surprise","tag-york"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1819417","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1819417"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1819417\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1819420"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1819417"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1819417"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1819417"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}