On February 26, 2024, a politician spoke in front of a small yet very passionate group of activists who had gathered with homemade signs to support an announcement from the public official. She tells the crowd how her sister died of an overdose the day before her 26^th birthday and how the progressive’s “harm reduction” drug policy failed her sister.

She spoke of how the policy failed the more than 800 people who died in her city from fentanyl overdoses in 2023.

She stated, “Harm reduction from my perspective is not reducing the harm.”

The speaker acknowledged that her taking this stand against the foundation of progressive drug policy was going to “make many people uncomfortable,” and declared it was necessary to save people’s lives.

Was this some right-wing politician speaking to a group of middle-class suburban parents about the evils of unaccountability and liberal drug attitudes?

No, this was progressive San Francisco Mayor London Breed. She had long been a supporter of harm-reduction policies and was even a leading member of the city’s safe injection task force.

So why is Mayor Breed now attacking harm reduction policies she previously supported? Because the evidence is overwhelming. As the record death totals prove, these misguided drug policies simply do not work.

Among the most noteworthy studies on harm reduction was a decade-long examination by Simon Fraser University regarding Vancouver, B.C.’s needle exchange and safe-injection sites which are surrounded by government and non-profit social services in the Downtown Eastside neighborhood. It concluded, “members of the current sample experienced significant personal decline rather than recovery, as evidenced by their involvements with criminal justice, large increases in acute care and prolonged homelessness.”

Harm reduction policies became popular in the late 1980s as the AIDs virus infected many drug users who shared dirty needles. To combat the spread of the disease, many communities operated needle exchanges for drug addicts. The harm reduction advocates sought to destigmatize illegal drug use by opening free injection sites and reduce criminal penalties for illegal drug possession and public use. Harm reduction advocates assert they are building trust with the addicts and this will enable them to get the addict into treatment.

Tragically, this relaxed stand on drug use significantly contributed to fentanyl overdoses killing more than 112,000 Americans in 2023. There were a record-breaking 806 fentanyl overdose deaths in San Francisco last year (King County experienced its own record-breaking number of drug overdose deaths with 1,338 – 1,087 from fentanyl).

Yet, even as fentanyl was killing a record number of Americans, the harm reduction advocates were not pushing for abstinence or treatment, instead they launched advertising campaigns which told users, “Don’t be ashamed you are using, be empowered that you are using safely,” “start with a small dose and go slowly,” and “do it with friends” (who presumably can administer Naloxone to those who overdosed).

Mayor Breed argued that this approach failed and that it was time to implement abstinence and treatment policies.

The mayor’s reversal upset the city’s progressive establishment. They claimed the mayor is “tacking to the right” as she seeks re-election this year (an odd claim since rarely does the most conservative candidate win an election in San Francisco).

Meanwhile, Seattle is sadly on track in 2024 to break the record for drug overdose deaths that was set last year. Last November voters removed nearly all of the progressive city councilmembers responsible for Seattle’s failed approach to the national fentanyl crisis,

Yet residents remain frustrated by the lack of leadership and plan from Mayor Bruce Harrell. After the previous city council failed to pass a drug possession law last summer, the mayor received some kudos for encouraging the council to revisit the issue and finally pass a drug possession measure – albeit a very watered-down version.  This lone achievement is not much of a record when one considers the severity of Seattle’s drug crisis.

Mayor Breed has shown the courage to take on both foes and allies to battle her city’s drug problem while Mayor Harrell seems unwilling to upset the status quo. With more people dying every day from overdoses, maybe it’s time for Seattle’s mayor take a lesson from his San Fransisco colleague and take a stand against failed policies that have made the city’s drug crisis even worse. This change would signify that city leadership places compassion for those suffering over politics.