Update: AB186 comes up for a third and final reading TOMORROW, August 21. Remind our elected representatives why they should be voting NO to this bill! It needs 21 votes to pass, and Bill Monning has already advanced it from Public Health Committee. EMAIL, CALL, MESSENGER PIGEON if necessary (allow flight time). If this goes to the Governor’s desk it has a very real chance of making our beloved town the first legal heroin injection site in the COUNTRY.
See document below for current tally of City/County representatives who have not taken a position (we can only assume they support) on AB186. Please contact them as well and encourage them to fight this in whatever way they can on behalf of Santa Cruz County and City.
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AB 186, which allows certain counties in California to operate “Safe Injection Sites”, passed the California Assembly on June 1st with 41 Ayes and 33 Noes. Our Assemblymember Mark Stone voted yes.
The bill moves onto the Senate.
So what can we do??
CALL, EMAIL, FAX, WRITE! The ball is now in the Senates’ court.
Senator Bill Monning
Contact Page for phone, fax, and mailing address
The following City and County representatives/staff have not taken a position on the bill:
Cynthia Chase, (cchase@cityofsantacruz.com) Mayor, City of Santa Cruz (responded but did not take a position)
Sandy Brown, (sbrown@cityofsantacruz.com) Councilmember, City of Santa Cruz
Chris Krohn, (ckrohn@cityofsantacruz.com) Councilmember, City of Santa Cruz (responded but did not take a position)
John Leopold, (john.leopold@co.santa-cruz.ca.us) Board of Supervisors, Santa Cruz County
Zach Friend, (Zach.Friend@santacruzcounty.us) Board of Supervisors, Santa Cruz County
Greg Caput, (greg.caput@co.santa-cruz.ca.us) Board of Supervisors, Santa Cruz County
Take Back Santa Cruz reaches out to local government leaders to see where they stand
1). Do you support California AB186? (Controlled substances: safer drug consumption program)
2). Do you support the inclusion of Santa Cruz County on the proposed Safe Injection Site pilot list?
Results of our brief survey and their responses may be found in the document posted below.
National Post: Vancouver’s drug strategy has been a disaster. Be very wary of emulating it
National Post| Tristin Hopper | May 12, 2017
Ensure a successful marketing of customers for drug dealers, some of whom operate openly on the streets surrounding the facility. Former Vancouver Mayor Philip Owen says the neighborhood has become a magnet that attracts people from around the region and country who “all get chemically dependent, and it’s just more sales for the drug dealers.”
Insite — and the concentration of services surrounding it — has turned an already blighted neighborhood into a disaster. Without an equal focus on prevention, treatment and enforcement, we can expect the same in Santa Cruz.
Safe-injection sites are good at what they do. But they really only do one thing: prevent people from dying.
It does not seem to reduce crime. There is slim evidence to show that it reduces overall addiction rates. And it certainly doesn’t lead to livable neighbourhoods filled with healthy people.
See also: