Why Marty Walsh loves safe injection sites

Mayor’s proposal would worsen the opioid epidemic

By Jeffrey T. Kuhner

Mayor Marty Walsh wants to bring safe injection sites to Boston. That’s right: Walsh supports legal areas where heroin and drug addicts can shoot up under government-sponsored medical supervision. Taxpayer dollars will go toward funding doctors and nurses to provide addicts with clean needles, drug testing to prevent impure (or dirty substances) from being injected with the dose of fentanyl, heroin or liquid cocaine, and administering Narcan to resuscitate drug users after a fatal overdose.

Walsh claims this will help combat the opioid epidemic ravaging not just Boston, but all of Massachusetts. Why does the mayor think safe injection sites are the solution? Because of his recent, “fact-finding” visit to facilities in Toronto and Montreal—where in Canada injection sites are legal and common.

“After seeing them firsthand, it’s a completely different impression I have,” he said. “But really when you get down to the understanding of it, these were needle exchange programs that the people who were going in and taking their clean needles and turning in their used needles, they’d just stay there and use the drug there and they’re monitored. There’s a full-time nurse, there’s counselors and staff there. It’s a whole system in place, and it really is amazing.”

Walsh and his supporters argue that the sites save lives, reduce the stigma of being an addict and help drug users get the help they need to eventually kick the habit. Call it rehabilitation through medically supervised injection.

Moonbat Marty is not simply wrong. His proposal is deadly and dangerous. If implemented, it will dramatically increase drug use and crime, lead to many more overdoses and cause the opioid epidemic to get even worse.

As a Canadian-American, who was born and raised in Montreal, I still manage to go back up north once in a while to visit family. All Walsh had to do was open his eyes and witness the tragedy that has befallen the city’s core, rather than blindly buy the liberal spin. Since these facilities were created, Montreal’s downtown looks like something out of an episode of “The Walking Dead.” Zombie-like heroin addicts roaming the streets, junkies lying on the sidewalk either high or desperately panhandling for their next fix and drug paraphernalia (including dirty needles) everywhere—these are the real consequences of safe injection sites.

And it’s not just Montreal and Toronto. Vancouver, which pioneered the use of these facilities, has had its downtown overrun with heroin addicts, crime and drug dealers. One of the most beautiful, scenic cities in North America has been transformed into a drug-infested hellhole.

It’s just common sense: If you provide a safe space for addicts to use heroin you will get more of it. Injection sites only encourage more drug use, thereby making the problem worse, not better. It creates a breeding ground for addicts, leading to areas of concentration for drug users, dealers and crime to feed their highly self-destructive habits.

Moreover, injection sites are a perversion and violation of Western medicine, which is based on the Hippocratic oath—the principle of first do no harm. The basis of our medical ethics is that doctors, as well as health providers, must never do anything that makes the patient sicker or even worse off. These facilities directly co-opt doctors and nurses into aiding drug addicts to put more, potentially deadly poison into their bodies. The policy is not only ineffective and counterproductive, but immoral.

Walsh backs injection sites for a simple reason: It provides the illusion that he’s doing something. He is a typical liberal. After supporting policies that created the opioid epidemic he then offers “bold” solutions that will only exacerbate the problem. As a recovering alcoholic, he should know better. The last thing you want is to provide drunks a place with free booze so they can hammer themselves three sheets to the wind—night after night after night.

Last year alone, over 70,000 Americans died of an opioid/heroin/fentanyl overdose. This is more than all of the U.S. soldiers killed during the Vietnam War (roughly 58,000 in total). Think about that: We are suffering a Vietnam every year. And yet, our political class in Massachusetts, led by a buffoon masquerading as a mayor, is pushing an initiative that guarantees more death, more drug use and more overdoses.

Walsh is a disgrace to the city of Boston. He should be ashamed of himself.

-Jeffrey T. Kuhner is host of “The Kuhner Report” on WRKO AM-680 in Boston. His daily show airs 6:00-10:00 am EST. He can be reached at: jeffreykuhner@iheartmedia.com