There is no one answer. It's easy to blame one person or entity but the problem can be trace back to corporations that told doctors the opiates were safe to prescribe. The reduction of penalties for certain crimes. The lack of enforcement of laws that were thought to be too harsh. Taxpayers that want to incarcerate everyone that commits crimes but aren't willing to pay for it or alternatives. And on and on...<p>We need to stop blaming and move forward with a solution. It should start with getting people treatment and housing. Blaming does nothing but make us feel good about doing nothing.
I recently lived in SF. Got my scripts through Walgreens.<p>Walgreens is a front line medical provider. Just like ERs. The pharmacists were often spending their time treating (dispensing meds) to people having psychiatric episodes.<p>Quite independently- people would come in and steal tons of stuff. These thieves were not mentally ill. They were probably not homeless. Some also attempted to scam people waiting in line.<p>These are two very, very different problems.<p>Their lowest common denominator is “a failure to propagate bourgeois norms” by the City and County of San Francisco.
Large media outlets are dying and this article is more proof of that. The premise seems to be that Wallgreens caused a drug problem, and then that drug problem caused other problems. Well, SF is notorious for having a very lenient attitude towards drugs, drug addicts, and public use of drugs. I'm not sure if it still happens, but they were giving free needles and other amenities that help you get high for recreational purposes.<p>This article is just hard to believe, and should be obvious for anyone that lived in SF. This leads me to think that these types of media outlets are getting some extra incentive... and that's why large media is so hard to trust. It stinks of having an agenda.