Boston: government-funded drug addiction center becomes a lawless haven for addicts

A government Harm Reduction Center located in South Boston has become a lawless haven for drug addicts who are free to inject illicit narcotics - on the streets - in front of city police with impunity.

The 'Harm Reduction Centers' are establishments that exist to allow the "safe use of illicit drugs." These places are based on "the idea that the population has the right to be safe and supported even when they are not prepared or determined to abstain from illicit drug use, offering citizens options to help them protect their health," notes the Open Society Foundations.

Despite the official definition, Patrick Hauf, a journalist for The Washington Free Beacon, reports that in Boston, the supposed system of drug control seems to be quite the opposite:

Police overlook consumption

The newspaper narrates how users inject in front of the building while an officer sitting inside a police vehicle watches them and overlooks the public consumption of drugs. The sidewalks, full of debris of pipes, syringes and narcotic capsules are also commonplace at the site. A frequent user of the center said that addicts go there because of the amount of free drugs that are handed out, and that the police guard the place to stop the violence that breaks out among them on a daily basis.

More than a dozen users are taken to hospitals each day for treatment after showing signs of overdose.

"All the time violence."

A security guard in the area commented that on the street one sees "violence all the time", and that "the police allow them to shoot" - at drug addicts - "but not in front of buildings." So far this year, the Boston Police Department has recorded an increase in arrests at locations near AHOPE facilities:

- 29 arrests for aggravated assault.

- 44 arrests for "possession/sale, manufacture or use of drugs".

- 12 arrests for robberies (5 of them of vehicles).

- 32 "urgent care for severe illness", 8 of them for "drug-related illness".

The police officers refused to talk to a reporter from the Free Beacon. Neither the Boston Police Department nor the Boston Public Health Commission would respond to a request for comment sent by the newspaper.

Role of the Biden Administration

The Free Beacon notes that "the mess on the outskirts of AHOPE provides a case study of how the controversial approach of The Biden administration's harm reduction approach to drug policy- which aims to make drug use safer for addicts rather than prevent it-may facilitate crime and the abuse of dangerous drugs."

The Department of Health doled out $30 million in grants to drug distribution organizations in "The Nation's First Federal Harm Reduction Program." The plan was criticized for including funding for items such as "smoking kits"- which often include crack pipes. The White House stated that these funds would not go to pipes, but several of the grantees distribute these types of drugs and paraphernalia.