Drugs are sold out in the open in San Francisco's Tenderloin district. Inside the fight to curb it | CNN
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The California Highway Patrol may best be known for freeway chases and the Hollywood glamour of its motorcycle cops in television shows like “ChiPs.” But now the storied agency is patrolling the streets of San Francisco’s Tenderloin as part of a multiagency effort to crack down on rampant drug dealing that’s decimating the 50-square-block area.

    … On one day recently, CNN watched as task force members arrested a suspected drug dealer accused of selling meth and fentanyl. Inside a plastic bag: 33 grams of fentanyl that CHP officer Andy Barclay estimates, at its worst, could potentially kill thousands of people.
    “We’re looking at around 16,500 fatal doses of pure fentanyl in that small bag. Yes, 16,500 people could potentially die,” Barclay said.…

    I’ve seen this before — stick a microphone in a policeman’s face after a fentanyl bust, and they’ll claim they’ve prevented thousands of imaginary deaths.
    There was one report after a raid some months back where a cop said they’d prevented half a million deaths.
    It’s all bullshit, like the War on Drugs hysteria always is.
    Thanks for the laughs, Officer Andy.

  • LanternEverywhere@kbin.social
    6·
    1 year ago

    Fentanyl, like all drugs, should be legal and highly regulated. Fentanyl is perfectly safe when taken in controlled conditions. In hospitals it’s used safely thousands of times every single day.

    • Doug Holland@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
      7·
      1 year ago

      Can’t argue when you’re so damned right.

      Drugs will always be a serious problem, until we adopt the obvious solution that’s worked with alcohol and is working with marijuana in America’s saner states: End prohibition, and instead legalize, tax, and regulate drugs for safety.

      If America’s decrepit leadership had compassion and any sense of right and wrong, there’d also be free drug counseling and rehab, and safe use spaces, and drug education wouldn’t be riddled with lies, like “16,500 fatal doses of pure fentanyl in that small bag.”