Some proposals to reduce the problem of illegal IV drug use in U.S. cities

If you're a hard-working American and someone had told you before November of 2008 that within less than 11 years a major U.S. city would have more IV drug addicts than students enrolled in its public high schools, would you have believed that was even remotely possible?

Probably not.  The city in this case is San Francisco, which is now estimated (by the city's own sociologists and medical experts) to have 24,500 IV-drug users.  By contrast, the city's 15 high schools have just under 16,000 students.

If you have a functioning brain, which of the following proposals would you support?

1. The city needs to build safe, comfortable "shooting galleries" where addicts can inject themselves in comfort, with nurses standing by in case of overdose;
2. The city should do what the enlightened European countries do, and give IV drug users "free" (i.e. taxpayer-funded) syringes.  Wait, San Francisco has been doing that for a couple of years now, and city street-cleaning crews collect half a million used syringes off the sidewalks and streets each year; but it's a great idea, eh?
3. To reduce profits for gangs and drug cartels, and thefts by addicts to pay for the drugs they "need," the city should give "free" drugs to anyone who wants 'em.  (This has actually been proposed.)
4. To avoid "disparate impact" the city should simply stop prosecuting IV drug use.  Better yet, IV drug use should be "decriminalized," just as Democrats have proposed "decriminalizing" illegally entering the U.S.
5. The city needs to hire more "former" addicts, at $80,000 per year, to urge city residents not to use IV-drugs. Cuz the problem is really that no one has ever told people that using IV drugs has bad outcomes.
6. To reduce theft by addicts, if you don't like the idea of giving 'em free drugs, give everyone making less than 150% of the poverty-level $1,500 per month, regardless of age or ability.  Democrats have already proposed this, and one California city (Democrat-ruled, of course) is trying it.  Some unsophisticated critics claim this will just cause more drug use, but that's just silly.

Of course if you have a functioning brain you instantly recognize that every one of these proposals are nuts.  But Democrats don't agree, and don't pay attention to you, but will do exactly what they want.

See, citizen, Dems know that what will make this country great less bad is fewer people holding down honest jobs, and more people laying around stoned out of their gourds.  Well, until they crash and need their next fix, anyway.