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Posted on 07/30/2026 5:57:53 AM PDT by MtnClimber
The Skid Row Care Campus—funded by local, state, and federal dollars—handed us drug paraphernalia.
As governor of California, Gavin Newsom has repeatedly supported “harm reduction” policies, which enable drug use in the name of making it “safer.” He created the state’s Harm Reduction Initiative, which funded “syringe services programs” for “people who inject and smoke fentanyl and/or methamphetamines.” His Department of Public Health has endorsed distributing syringes, glass pipes, and “[c]ontainers for mixing injectable drugs” to drug users. Newsom argued earlier this year that harm-reduction tactics “increase the likelihood of people entering substance use treatment.”
But do California’s harm-reduction programs encourage addicts to enter treatment? We visited the Skid Row Care Campus, a homeless-services site in Los Angeles County, to witness “harm reduction” in action. We discovered that, instead of directing addicts to get clean, the taxpayer-funded program doles out free paraphernalia, enabling addicts to get high—no questions asked.
We arrived at Skid Row in the morning. The campus, bounded by pastel-colored buildings and a metal gate, looked like an apocalyptic wasteland. Homeless people and addicts were splayed across the common areas, with some smoking what seemed to be hard drugs with impunity.
We stepped onto the courtyard connected to the street. No one stopped us, asked for identification, or searched us for weapons or drugs. This is apparently by design, judging by the Skid Row Action Plan and its implementation outline, which, singly or together, inspired the creation of the campus, denounced the “racist and classist war on drugs,” and called on local officials to create hubs “free from monitoring by law enforcement” and staffed by people with histories of “substance use and sex work.”
We entered campus and found a walk-up counter, where an attendant sat before shelves of drug paraphernalia. Users come to this counter to get free needles and crack pipes, with which they can inject or smoke hard drugs.
“What can I get you?” he asked. “We have oil burners, we have spray shooters, we have socks, we have petroleum jelly.”
Across several visits, we obtained drug-testing strips, syringes, and crack pipes. One worker told us that while drug use isn’t allowed on-site, we “wouldn’t be bothered” if we got high just outside—unless we overdosed.
The entire campus takes a “low-touch” approach. In addition to staple items that many homeless shelters offer—food, laundry, some medical care—the site offers services like doggie daycare, meditation on the lawn, and “valet” cart parking. Around midday, we saw homeless people lining up in the cafeteria for Doritos and instant ramen, while around two-dozen sat in reclining chairs to watch the movie 127 Hours.
The Skid Row site launched in 2025. The campus and its services are run by a group of nonprofits committed to harm reduction, including one that laments the “long-standing criminalization of substance use.”
For these left-wing groups, the site has become a massive cash cow. The campus is listed as a federally funded health center and reportedly pulls in around $26 million a year in local, state, and federal dollars. One of its service providers, Homeless Health Care Los Angeles, has seen its revenue more than double since 2020, jumping to $27 million last year. Another, Wesley Health Centers (JWCH Institute), has seen revenues more than double to $200 million in five years.
Estela Lopez, executive director of the L.A. Downtown Industrial District, thinks the campus has been a disaster.
“You want a meth pipe? Here you go. You want needles? Here you go,” she said, describing the campus’ “harm reduction” approach. “Everything that you need in order to get high, stay high, is provided, no questions asked.”
Lopez said the site has caused chaos on the nearby street. An LAPD source told us they’ve totaled 1,200 “radio calls for service” and four murders in the area so far this year. One of the site nonprofits’ employees told us that drug dealers were “fighting over the guests.”
All of this raises questions about federal funding. Last year, President Trump signed an executive order ordering reviews of federally funded drug paraphernalia distribution sites. The order took a negative view of “so-called ‘harm reduction’ or ‘safe consumption’ efforts that only facilitate illegal drug use.”
The named nonprofits and the mayor’s office did not respond to our requests for comment, and the governor’s office did not offer a responsive comment. L.A. County claimed that they adhere “to all local, state, and federal laws,” and said the campus “is funded by L.A. Care Health Plan,” a public health plan, “and Health Net,” an LLC. (In a 2024 press release, Health Net claimed that the two entities’ investment in the campus’s launch “was the result of California's Housing and Homelessness Incentive Program, which the state launched with the help of matching funds from the American Rescue Plan Act.”)
Our trip to Skid Row made one thing unmistakably clear: in California, harm reduction facilitates drug abuse. The state’s leaders may think that it’s compassionate to let people waste away, smoking hard drugs and prodding themselves with needles. But these behaviors lead only to ruin, and, finally, death.
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Is this what government is for?
Isn’t about government it’s about control.
Get them while their young makes the job of it easier.
I am involved with several homeless charitable organizations and this has been a huge debate over the past decade. It started as giving homeless drug addicts Narcan for free to prevent OD deaths. That was controversial because it was argued that it encouraged drug use. That expanded into giving the homeless drug addicts free needles to prevent the spread of AIDS and other diseases that spread through dirty needles. Another hugely controversial program. But both at least arguably had a public health component because it was argued that it prevented having to pay the healthcare cost for the homeless through prevention. But mission creep has now completely unmoored the program from its purpose and the purpose has become to hand out free drug paraphernalia for that purpose alone. Hence, handing out meth pipes. There is no conceivable public health purpose for it. But the NGO industry that was built on handing out Narcan and needles needs to justify itself and expand so now we get free pipes.
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Golly.....Newsom's such a humanitarian. Who knew?
Indeed
Canada has vending machines filled with whatever drug , needle etc you want ,LOL
Newsom’s missing the boat......../s.
He’s a sure winner in Califreak if he runs as a “humanitarian.”
Needles too:
“San Francisco distributes approximately 400,000 to 4.5 million clean syringes annually through its Department of Public Health and partner organizations, such as the San Francisco AIDS Foundation and Glide Memorial Church.”
A lot of those needles end up in the ocean - and wash up on beaches. I was walking my dogs along a beach in San Francisco after a storm - a city worker told me not to let my dogs root around in the debris b/c it was full of needles - he was using a magnet to try to gather needles that had washed up and showed me a large pile he had collected just that morning.
How about give my MIL insulin and test paraphernalia ...assholes all
Do they have any leftover “safe smoking kits” from the Biden era? Most likely yes, and of course are making more.
“SOCKS” ???????
“PETROLEUM JELLY”????????
DO NOT WISH TO KNOW FOR WHAT USE..
It is dangerous to do HVAC work due to all the used needles tossed on roofs.
Gavin Newsom has repeatedly supported “harm reduction
I’m sure he won’t up his standards to that point but it’s politics one never knows what scams come down the pike?.
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