Seattle, San Francisco rethink hurt discount drug insurance policies amid disaster

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At the least two main West Coast cities are rethinking their so-called hurt discount insurance policies which have sought to deal with habit, signaling that these areas are overhauling their technique to fight the drug disaster as habit challenges persist.

Whereas cities together with San Francisco and Seattle have beforehand adopted insurance policies to distribute "safer" drug provides like clear foil and pipes that might be used to smoke fentanyl or different substances, these cities at the moment are implementing a brand new method that imposes new limitations on the distribution of those provides.

Seattle’s City Council handed its 2026 funds in November and included a provision that can "preclude any Metropolis help for the acquisition or distribution of provides for the consumption of unlawful medication, excluding needles."

The supply was championed by Metropolis Council Member Sara Nelson, who mentioned that whereas she helps needle trade applications as a result of they scale back the unfold of ailments like HIV and Hepatitis C, she mentioned she doesn’t see the profit in utilizing public sources to "assist folks get excessive" by distributing sure drug provides.

A number of packages containing medication, probably laced with fentanyl, displayed on a mattress. (U.S. District Court docket of Rhode Island)

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"I overlook, nevertheless, the hurt that’s being decreased by distributing provides equivalent to pipes and foil which might be used to devour lethal medication like meth and fentanyl," Nelson mentioned throughout a Nov. 16 funds committee assembly. "To me, it feels prefer it’s giving a loaded gun to any person who's suicidal."

Seattle isn’t the one metropolis taking such steps to cut back the way it distributes "secure" drug provides to its neighborhood.

Earlier in 2025, San Francisco unveiled a brand new coverage that may require people to obtain therapy counseling — or be related with such companies to obtain therapy choices — earlier than receiving any drug use provides from town or city-funded applications. Moreover, the brand new coverage barred offering these provides in public areas.

San Francisco unveiled a brand new coverage that may require people to obtain therapy counseling earlier than receiving any drug use provides from town or city-funded applications. (Jeff Chiu, File/The Related Press )

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The coverage went into impact April 30, and utilized to any city-funded public well being program that offered drug use provides like sterile syringes and smoking kits.

"We will not settle for the truth of two folks dying a day from overdose. The established order has failed to make sure the well being and security of our total neighborhood, in addition to these within the throes of addiction . Fentanyl has modified the sport, and we’ve been counting on methods that preceded this new drug epidemic, which ends as we speak," San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie mentioned in a press release in April. "Our new coverage will join people to therapy rapidly, and that could be a massive step towards reclaiming our public areas."

Seattle’s City Council elections and San Francisco’s mayoral races are formally nonpartisan. Nevertheless, each cities have strongly backed Democrats in state and native elections.

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In the meantime, these drug coverage modifications aren’t well-liked with proponents of "hurt discount" insurance policies. For instance, Laura Guzman, govt director of the Nationwide Hurt Discount Coalition, mentioned there will not be sufficient sources to adjust to San Francisco’s new rule.

"It is mandating or placing as a situation for folks to obtain life-saving provides, to truly have lengthy conversations about therapy that will not be out there," Guzman mentioned in April, in keeping with CBS Information. "Individuals who know within the area — researchers, medical doctors — are saying this isn't good coverage. We're truly going in opposition to the grain as a result of what we're making an attempt to do is have the notion that there is no such thing as a drug use on the streets. Nevertheless it's not public well being, it isn't science-based. It is precisely the alternative of what we all know works."

The Seattle skyline is pictured from a Washington State Ferry in Seattle, Washington. (Jason Redmond/Reuters )

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Though each Washington’s King County, which incorporates Seattle, and San Francisco had fewer drug overdose deaths in 2024 than in 2023, the numbers for each cities are increased compared to 2019 earlier than the COVID-19 pandemic.

For instance, 635 folks died as a result of unintentional drug overdoses in 2024 in San Francisco — down from the 810 that died in 2023, however up from the 441 that died in 2019, in keeping with the San Francisco Workplace of the Chief Medical Examiner.

Drug overdose deaths are additionally down nationwide. The Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention reported in February a virtually 24% decline in drug overdose deaths in fiscal yr 2024, compared to the earlier fiscal yr.

In the meantime, the Trump administration has taken an aggressive method to fight the inflow of medication into the U.S. For instance, President Donald Trump signed an executive order in December designating illicit fentanyl a "weapon of mass destruction."