SF Chronicle: For all of City Hall’s tough talk of late about getting needles off the streets, the city itself is responsible for helping fuel the problem — handing out millions of syringes a year with little or no controls over their return.
And while the easy access to clean syringes is intended to protect public health, the city’s residents are not happy with the situation.
“The status quo on our streets today is simply unacceptable, and we’re not going to stand for it,” Mayor Mark Farrell said the other day as he stood on Natoma Street to unveil his new needle cleanup team.
Standing by his side, Director of Public Health Barbara Garcia said, “No needles on the streets — that’s our goal.”
No doubt that goal is well-intentioned, but what wasn’t mentioned is that the health department is the biggest source of the needles — it hands out an estimated 400,000 syringes a month through various programs aimed at reducing HIV and other health risks for drug users.
The program began under Mayor Frank Jordan in 1993. It was originally billed as a “needle exchange,” but there never have been strict rules for returns, and the number handed out has steadily climbed. read more
You complainin’ “bout litter?!?
It be a *cultural* thing, girl!
You RAAAACCCISSSS (or sexist, or whatever we got…)!
*CELEBRATE* that litter!
But isn’t it a good thing that SF citizens can SEE up close & personal where their tax $$ are going? Does the city also invest in pooper-scoopers?
“unveil his new needle cleanup team.”
like he’s going to go out and pick them up.
more virtue signaling
Maybe if they installed sharps disposal bins on every street corner, the junkies will properly dispose of them….
Hahahahahahahahahahha….
Here’s an idea: Stop distributing clean needles and let the addicts share. This will eventually lower the number of human pin cushions and, in the long run, have a positive effect on the public streets.
Action meet reaction……
How about recycling? Hand out to the junkies all the needles the city picks up off the street! I call it a win-win!
And what are the junkies putting IN the needles? That can’t be healthy. Shouldn’t the city be providing the drugs too?
Libtards proving when you give something away for FREE or subsidize it you get more it. They really thought handing out free drug paraphernalia was going to mean they’d dispose of it properly? In Denver’s exclusive Cherry Creek they added needle disposal containers on the bike bath. Yet they still have volunteers picking up thousands of needles. Heroin addicts are so well known for their conscientious hygiene practices and are so concerned about their communities (LOL).
How are they cleaning the streets? Are they walking around with thick gloves, steel boots and hazmat suits?
How the F are people not accidentally sticking themselves with the dirty needles? And who do they sue when they do get stuck?
Just so ya know, I’m type 1 diabetic and have never been offered free syringes from any city, county, state or the feds. But I do get interrogated and treated like a suspect when I have to buy them.
Meanwhile, I bet Becton Dickinson is making a killing off these dumbass Democrats.
What happened to the SF Chronicle? This is two days in a row I read something that could be construed as conservative that came from the Chronicle.
What about having the sheety council devote every weekend to “used needle recovery/recycling program”.
Two of the arguments used both in the States and in Canada when trying to open a free needle exchange was that health care costs would decrease because of a decrease in diseases such as AIDS or Hepatitis and that used needles would be handed in for safe destruction. After years of operation neither of these left wing promises seem to have come true. A junkie is a junkie and they won’t remember to bring used needles back for disposable. They also won’t remember not to share a needle when they only have one hit of heroin between two of them. Now safe injection sites are being opened using the same two justifications. I sometimes wonder just how western civilization ended up on this path to ruin.
SF is a danger zone. AIDS and drugs. Two major killers. Add murder to the list, too. I will never set a foot in that town. Tony Bennett, go pick up your heart.