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In this video, we visit a Harm Reduction facility managed by a nonprofit called The Gubbio Project and speak with the program director, Lydia Bransten, who is the face behind many of the pop-up, 'renegade' harm reduction facilities in SF.

Much of the controversy surrounding the drug crisis in SF surrounds the Harm Reduction Coalition and their continuous efforts to provide drug users with clean needles, crack pipes, foil, and so forth.

It's rare to have the opportunity to actually visit one of these facilities, so I'm very stoked on this.

More to come.

-AC

Comments

Anonymous

Andrew for prez 2024

Anonymous

Bless this was an early present

Fire Flores

This content is insane Andrew and the channel 5 team!! Thanx! If y’all ever need hospitality in El Paso or get a inside in border life I’d be happy to help y’all

Anonymous

First real video I've seen on this topic!

Anonymous

We need harm reduction for sex addicts too

channel5

True. Also, Maybe if brothels were legal and regulated, incel culture would disappear

Anonymous

Blonde lady is letting kids make decisions and blue hat sun glasses guy is living in reality. I love blue hat sun glasses guy. Drugs are bad.

Anonymous

Great video excited for part 4! Also, there's a cut at 7:45 where the audio doesn't match the frame.

Oliver Sangster

On the last point re taxpayer dollars, those dollars are also used to lock people up which he seems to be advocating for (jail is a massive burden on taxpayers).

Oliver Sangster

Great content, thanks for demystifying the harm reduction philosophy and operations. Seems like a very pragmatic and useful intervention in the context of thousands of people dying from ODing every year. The other guy seems to ignore the very real death toll that these drugs carry

Kaylee Rose

DrUgs aRe BaD - someone who clearly didn’t understand the insight from the video

Anonymous

It costs roughly 100k a year to keep someone in prison, while needles and bandages are relatively cheap. Even if you want to view drug addicts as numbers rather than humans, harm reduction is a lot cheaper.

Kaylee Rose

Thank you for amplifying the voices of advocates for harm reduction, who dispel the misinformation that Ricci Wynne spreads. He spreads dangerous and stigmatizing language about addiction and harm reduction. People deserve compassion and deserve access to safe supplies.

DW

I love that dude's undercover get up is Leon the Professional

Buz Lee

The music in this one is great

Mallory

I hope this gets more accessible around the US so when/if more drugs become decriminalized there’s more things in place to protect people who choose to use

Moriah

Only pushing abstinence for sex and drugs just doesn’t work. Harm reduction services like a needle exchange are positive for everyone not just addicts, keeps literal bio hazards off the ground. Same for vaccinations like hepatitis. Worked with an addict who had hep A, health department called after he was hospitalized. Turns out SC was experiencing an outbreak.

Anonymous

At 5:28 it was kinda hilarious when she used the example of seat belts in "I think the common misconception is that harm reduction enables people to use drugs. It's like saying a seat belt enables people to drive fast." There have been a multitude of studies that have shown that seat belt laws have led to people feeling safer and therefore driving faster. It's a phenomenon called "Risk compensation". NOTE: I am not saying harm reduction is a good or bad thing it's just hilarious that her example is one of the main cornerstones of the risk compensation phenomenon

demlet

Lol, what a clown comment on every level. Congratulations on not engaging with the video in the slightest meaningful way.

demlet

Addiction is an extremely complex thing. It's not going to be solved by one single approach. Every addict is an individual with individual needs. We have to err on the side of compassion and help people stay as healthy as possible. It's good for society as a whole. Until we can somehow "cure" addiction, we have to find other ways to care for our fellow human beings.

Richard Springfield

After seeing him without a shirt on it looks like Ricki spent less on his titties than Ms. Jay did . . .

Arham Nezami

This is a great video to show you why harm reduction is a good thing. But it's also sad. In the US, the best resource we can have is one that encourages safety when using. What if our health care system was expansive that were able to stay off addiction longer and more often

Austin

Agree. But more needs to be done than what is currently being provided. The compassion approach is a good first step, but there needs to be more spaces created that are dedicated to getting these people off the street and into safe places where they can actually recover.

Ryan Ellis

The documenting, editing, and juxtaposing nature of your films us, the viewer, to be the adult and come to our own conclusions. Seriously invaluable! My 2cents is that both sides obviously don't want to be wrong and be shown that their philosophy is harming people so they will naturally have their blind sides. Seems that both aren't 100% right. But I feel the Ricci Wyyne isnt really a good dude, probably a narcissist and has a unfortunate lack of compassion and ability to humanize. We are not isolated individuals. We do heal through relearning to love/care for ourselves, and that's probably not possible for most addicts unless someone else shows them that they're worthy of love and care. Sadly its a cliché but its true asf

FORTYozSTEAK

Enabling people to do drugs or be homeless will only promote homelessness and drug use it’s that simple. If there’s no incentive to get clean and I’m waited on hand and foot to not do anything and just do drugs and beg all day that’s what I’ll do. This shit is such a joke.

Logan

My province refuses to fund harm reduction. Hopefully that changes someday

Gary Eddy

Wow, hard to watch but amazingly complex. Great work

Anonymous

Bill is a real one. People are going to use regardless, might as well make it as safe as possible so when they do want to give up they can walk away without HIV or Hepatitis. Huge respect for people like this who are realists and work tirelessly to help.

Anonymous

Incredible stuff.

Anonymous

When can we expect the next 3 parts to drop?

Matt

The only things they should be giving out are clean needles and narcan.

Anonymous

Individuals vary so much, forced treatment may work for some. For others it won't. Both approaches are needed depending on the individual

Jori Vajretti

I’m torn. I’d like to see stats on how many people the nonprofits get clean, and how long those people stay clean, if such things are quantifiable. I come from a family of hardcore drug addicts. The only things that make them stay clean are love, as Lydia said, AND major consequences, as the other guy says. With addicts, you can’t have just one of those things.

Adam Dev

Jazz

Anonymous

If Ricci’s argument is that the court system does help people get clean, and the idea behind harm reduction is that reducing shame and risk will also help people get clean, then I wonder how much public money gets spent on the # of prisoners who stay clean and the # of harm reduction users who get clean, as well as how much money gets wasted on those who don’t. This assumes that the goal is to get clean, which honestly in the case of these hard drugs, I think that is the right thing. Legal or illegal, I don’t care. Don’t use drugs that send you down this negative spiral

Anonymous

It genuinely isn't that simple. On the contrary, being on the street so addicted that you would literally use disgusting, used needles to inject yourself with drugs that you can only hope don't contain toxins, and waking up day after day of nothing but hopelessness sounds like it would further drive me into the hole of escapism and addiction. Health is a basic human right, and only with it can people recover. When you have a wounded, infected arm that you continue to stab for momentary escape -- when you're going through hell -- there's no discussion about an "incentive" to recover. Recovery isn't happening.

Daniel

We have this in Seattle, too. It's so, so necessary. I don't think we're nearly as well-funded and we have so much volunteer help. Even with public funding, this kind of thing saves sooooooo much public money when you consider sick people need to be treated, even when they don't have insurance.

Anonymous

Fantastic work, Andrew.

Anonymous

Both sides have points that are correct and make sense but at the same time are wrong in ways. Great video

Anonymous

Bill and Lydia are so articulate and kind spirited, I work in a hospital on many people dealing with these health outcomes and it's really enriching and healing to see i'm not alone and not starting from scratch. they really should be proud, i'd totally buy that goofy hat too

Anonymous

Totally agree, I need more data on this to fully understand the long term effects of the harm reduction. I think it definitely gives individuals more time to potentially get sober rather than just dying the next day from some issue. However, I also think that if we soften the consequences of bad life choices, people will become less accountable and vigilant over time. I just don't know which method produces a better success ratio.

Anonymous

The main issue I have with harm reduction, and to some extent incarceration, is that it really doesn't solve the drug / homelessness issue at a fundamental level. If you walk the cause and effect backwards there's one major place you end up: the southern US border. We already saw this in the last part. It's time for us to ignore political biases on both sides and come together to admit that drugs and cartel members are trickling into the US like water from a leaky pipe. We need an ironclad southern border. Blame whomever you want: China, Honduras, Mexico, Cartels, Coyotes, the government, I don't care. We need to get someone in office who will stop this flow of poison. Kids are dying out here man. It's not about racism for anyone in South America or Mexico, it's about doing what we need to do to protect current American citizens. The border stays open under the notion that we can't shut the poor oppressed people out of the promised land. But if we keep letting the poison flow in, eventually there won't be a promised land to flee to at all. The one caveat is that if we really secure the border, we should then take the time to focus on streamlining the immigration process. I understand that the process is long and people are in danger while waiting to get into the US, but we can't have this chaos. We need to be more selective about who we let in and it starts with controlling the land under our jurisdiction. And by "we" I mean WE THE FUCKING PEOPLE man. I'm tired of this divisive bullshit rained down on us from above.

Joseph Jaworski

A well controlled Southern border with good, positive immigration flow would be incredible. I believe harm reduction service are still a necessity because you have to treat the symptoms of a disease before you can treat the cause if the symptoms are toxic enough. In this case, giving these people a safe haven to transmit less disease and have an opportunity to go into rehab, however small that chance may be, is necessary until we fix the southern border problem. We don't even have a fix for the root problem yet, but we can treat the symptoms to try and save our people.

Andrew O'Connor

…. What about the issues Andrew outlined in the previous episodes of this series. Do you think those might be more relevant for this topic than the border?

Anonymous

Not really, since drugs / homelessness is a problem in other cites too, not just SF. I think SF got double screwed by what happened with big tech but Texas and NY also have issues. Closing the border also helps make sure current citizens get more of the jobs when they come back. You know, the support type jobs they were talking about (janitors, groundskeepers, construction, whatever it may be).

Anonymous

really solid series

ryan mchale

Harm reduction saves lives!

Anonymous

Great video, but what's up with the piano music in the end? At least turn it down a couple dbs. This is an important documentary, so please don't feel rushed into putting it out.

Anonymous

We can point our fingers and blame cartels all you want, but capitalism is built on a single fundamental idea. Supply and DEMAND. The truth is Americans love drugs. These people you see out on the streets are actually the minority of drug users. Most drug users are functional members of our society. Sure you can go to Skid Row and see a few hundred junkies, but you can EDC, Burning Man, Coachella, etc and see hundreds of thousands of recreational drug users. As long as there is a demand, supply will find a way. I worked in counter narco for half a decade the amount of stuff we catch on average is less than 1%. At our best we stop maybe 5% and that's only the illegal stuff. Keeping things in legal transferrable precursors is becoming more prevalent. Also, it's not just the Mexican border. It's the Canadian border too and there's A LOT of that and it's much harder up there because of all the forest. Not to mention all the maritime assets... they have fucking submarines. This is what is meant by the war on drugs is lost. It's unwinnable. So, we might as well try to mitigate the negative impact as much as possible.

Moriah

Great point, preventative care takes pressure off the hospital systems.

Reuben

Hi, I'm new here but it looks like people are giving editing advice, is that something you want? If it is my two cents is that in your interviews with Lydia Bransten it looks like you're looking next to her rather than at her.

Josh Greer

Lydia is good people. Harm reduction saves lives. I'm 7 years clean off junk but I still donate to harm reduction centers and you should too, it's like homie said: dead people don't recover.

Anonymous

So you’re saying we need a Drug War II? I guess we did have a Second World War. Why not a second drug war? But keep in mind, Drugs already won the first war.

Alfy Penny

Nice suit. I can tell you've had massive personal experience with addiction and poverty. Do you have an extra pair of bootstraps I can borrow? I tried pulling on mine too hard and they broke!

Anonymous

Why do you seem so tensed when interviewing the Harm Reduction clinic ? Holy cow the music towards the end, contemporary jazz type vibe, is so amazing. Complements the sheer absurdity of the confused and controversial opinions neck tat bro has very well. Awesome video as always Andrew. Thank you for providing an authentic look at this drug epidemic.

Anonymous

I just dont understand how people can let It can get that bad.

Anonymous

yeah it's funny and shit but it could be a bit quieter i think

Miccalo

Everybody is on drugs.

Miccalo

Drugs defy logic by replacing it. Imagine your own brain arguing against itself as your cravings become only drugs. Hard to do unless you've done or seen it. To try and relate, many people are obese, food is their drug. How do they let eating/escaping their feelings become 'that bad' to the point of 350+ lbs? Parts of their body become inaccessible or die, mobility is severely limited, daily shots or pills may be required, yet they continue. The depth of human behavior is astounding, including our (dis)ability to squint and change perspective with wishful thinking.

Miccalo

Agreed. Wishful thinking is a bias all humans suffer from. It turns truth into misinformation by believing what supports our current perspective, good or bad. The hope or desire that fuels it is part of why we're so manipulatable, and part of what makes the algorithms so effective.

Chris Pyle

My takeaway was anger at China for selling the raw fent material to cartels. I know it would still be abused if restricted only to pharmacies. But this whole time I was thinking where is everyone getting this stuff.. it comes in pill form. The answer is so simple that its infuriating we haven't done any thing about it. They were really fucking waiting a long time to fire back at some imperialist for that whole opium den stunt the British pulled.

Anonymous

Ngl tho it does suck walking around needles/ worrying about my dog eating drug paraphernalia. Good shit doe

Anonymous

This fool Ricci W who's off on the streets harrassing people for drug use when his whole family are drug dealers. lolz, america what a place!

Chris

Nit - the music / piano parts with Ricci are pretty distracting, and the scary music leading into the interview with the Harm Reduction lead are way too on the nose. Also the cuts between the two interviews are a bit clunky at times. I know you're trying to cut it as if it were a debate, but I think teeing up a question "We wanted to know x" and then having a clip of both of them replying could be useful for guiding the narrative. Also - I might appreciate a disclaimer on the pictures of medical conditions / wounds before airing them. I think it's important folks confront the reality of the situation, but just giving people a second or forewarning.

Nolan Wilder

Amazing. Thank you for your hard work 🙏

Joe Toomey

The jazz hits hard in this one

Anonymous

28 million for harm reduction is a lot. the figure shows you that the money is going into a black hole, that the philosophy of care's underpinnings are broken. This is San Francisco's Suicidal idealism.

Andrew O'Connor

Yeah whatever. Does not really Matter. Ass is going to fall out of the country soon enough regardless of the border. Everyone knows the United States is a ticking time bomb. Just hope I’m dead and gone before it blows up. Fuck that place.

Anonymous

interesting to listen to both perspectives within the harm reduction topic. hard to feel bad for either sides. one hand is helping sick people be safer and try to reduce their mortality rate. while the other is the appearance and community aspect of it. homeowners and businesses owners not wanting that on the streets. very interesting topic of discussion especially with the new generation going through the xandemic. i wonder how opioid addiction within people in their 20’s will turn into.

Anonymous

"Healthier and safer" woman is obese and probably has diabetes is that not another plague haunting America? And why is her face so red?

Jeremy

There must be some evidence in the literature which either supports or doesn’t these harm reduction centers. Funding like that can’t just be written off of a whim without some scientific support.

Jeremy

I side with the notion that love, support and understanding is the way out of this. But with any business/organization the bottom line is always execution. Are they meeting their goals? Are they actually making a difference? Would like to see some talk on their end regarding that.

Anonymous

As the lady mentioned, there's tons of evidence that supports harm reduction services. Showing that not only do they reduce harm, but they quickly pay for themselves-- Like that device that helps prevent disease transmission. It probably costs a dollar or few. Compare that to years of hepatitis treatment, or a lifetime of HIV drugs, or a single ambulance ride/stay in the hospital. All this stuff will eventually be paid for by taxpayers anyway.

Jeremy

Heard. I can see how this treatment works at scale, makes sense as a means to prevent higher cost treatments and services. But at least in how the problem is presented, I’m curious as to what the data shows in how the “sector” of harm reduction in the city of SF is doing. Maybe they are making a massive difference, but the problem is too big for the common person to realize.

Anonymous

was 5:41 shot in SF?

Anonymous

The piano at the end makes so I can’t hear the dude. I care about the dialogue. Not the vibes.

Anonymous

Thank you for educating me on this. I live in SF and walk by people who are sick daily. This gives me a new perspective.

Anonymous

Not sure if this is in the next episode, but political groups in SF talk about how London Breed gives non-profit contracts to her cronies and they just profit off of the government contracts. The non-profits seem to do very little to help solve the problems

greg

here you go https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/16/opinion/safe-injection-sites-crime.html

Anonymous

right... I do think harm reduction (in general) is a good thing, but also found that hilarious and cringy af. She's way closer to a holistic understanding of the reality of the situation than Ricci, or most, but that was a pretty vast oversight lmfao

Anonymous

It needs to be a mix of both, but those hard consequences, shouldn't be death and disease. There's no easy one sided solution as you said.

Anonymous

THis one was kinda boring

Anonymous

This was boring More ppl smoking China drugs off foil please

Anonymous

Love the use of the piano in that context <3 Really interesting stuff and highlighting both sides!

Anonymous

Thank you for highlighting harm reduction programs like this. There are groups doing this work to keep people alive and get them on a path to health everywhere, even in small cities and states like Maine, which has been ravaged by opioid addiction. Find your local harm reduction groups and give them a hand or at least a donation, it really keeps people alive. They can also often give you narcan to carry around in case you encounter someone ODing

Anonymous

Who in this video do you believe was saying that addiction is good?

David Wojcicki

Amazing work as usual, love the contrast of knowledge and understanding between Lydia and Ricci right after one another. Still is so impressive from an editing and directorial point of view.

Anonymous

Not from SF but the narcan and clean gear I got from the harm reduction ppl when I was using saved my life. "Dead people don't recover" is so true. I wouldn't have my life or my recovery if it wasn't for a harm reduction center like the one in this vid. Shoutout to the Red Project <3

Ryan Stiltz

I would be interested in how many people actually go sober from the harm reductions centers pipeline. She says that giving people massages and pedicures eventually gets them to go sober but im not sure I believe just a "yea this works trust me". Atleast the Ricci guy has anecdotes from people in his life personally and knows how being forced into a "detox" situation changes you vs hoping someone comes to the light eventually which seems to be the harm reduction centers pathway.

Ryan Stiltz

Is there evidence to support that people actually are going sober and that they are going sober at a faster rate then not having the center? Obviously reducing people who have STDs and infections with unclean utensils is an obvious but the other claims from the video im not seeing any data on. Im not sure thats the point of the centers but its the point Ricci is making in the video.

Anonymous

Blue shirt at the harm reduction center does mention studies and research, which is equivalent to the "my mom.. my brother.. my cousin.." anecdotes, if not better. Sources would be best but difficult in-person, live like that (for both sides). The approach at harm reduction really is about humanizing everyone, no matter their circumstances, and showing them that they have the right to live. It seems reductionist the way you presented their services, and not in good faith. Those services (barber, massages, foot treatment not pedicures, etc.) are there for a community that cannot afford to access them. Here's a top article on efficacy, with some scholarly sources as well to read as you said you're interested: - https://www.samhsa.gov/find-help/harm-reduction - https://scholar.google.ca/scholar?q=harm+reduction+services+efficacy&hl=en&as_sdt=0&as_vis=1&oi=scholart My 2 cents here too, if you're going to give one side the benefit of the doubt, and not the other, try to dive deep into your thoughts to understand why you may have biases towards one group and not the other.

Ryan Stiltz

Blue shirt does the same thing the other lady does and says basically "trust me bro." What wasnt in good faith, what I said is what she described in the video, but i guess thats your way to reduce it. Ive googled this and read about it before and most articles and data points are the downstream effects of HIV/Infection spreading and health concerns regarding those effects and not really delving into the data on the pipeline to sobriety which is what I was talking about. My bias is that Ricci is a dude that doesnt get paid to go on the streets to investigate this and come to his conclusions on how to solve this issue where blue shirt and the pink lady are getting 29 million in grants to "fix" the problem. If they have money backing them from tax payers its fair to hold them to a way higher standard.

Anonymous

I would very much enjoy full uncut interviews or some version of long form content

Anonymous

Except Ricci does get paid to record drug addicted people. News outlets pay him for his footage.

Ryan Stiltz

Its pretty different to get government funding vs selling videos he already made to news companies, but yea he does make money doing what he does.

Gavin

America is all about money first, and reactionary health care there after. Shame harm reduction is even needed due to the corruption of those who wanted to make money from drug consumption.

Anonymous

Shame just makes you want to get fucked up and forget yourself. Loving yourself makes you want to change.

Anonymous

nit: Andrew, your audio is desynced a little at 14:14. Excellent video, the "debate" structure is super interesting, as a San Franciscan myself I struggle between trying to figure out what the right answer is for this problem. On extremes, option 1 you just lock up all the addicts and give them mandatory rehab, or option 2 give all the addicts a home, drug paraphernalia, and a therapist. During APEC last week (major political conference with world leaders) the Tenderloin was completely cleaned up & homeless kicked out, pretty incredible to witness and felt pretty amazing being able to walk the streets out there and not have to constantly dodging riff raff and poop on the ground. Obviously they just moved the homeless while world leaders were in town and they're going to return, but that makes the immediate relief of option 1 feel pretty enticing (while also proving it doesn't entirely work).

Ryan Todd

29 million dollars; seeing the reaction of the woman when exposed about the funding, says it all. I support healthy access to drug dependent persons; but not at the expense of the victims of this health epidemic.

Anonymous

Why can't you have harm reduction with conditions of getting clean best of both worlds conditional harm reduction

Anonymous

I work as a handyman in an organization that gives housing to homeless. In Seattle. I can easily see both sides you gave voice to on this subject. Both are correct.

Lame Lade

Remember when youre watching that woman with the blue glasses speak, the Executive Director there, remember that earlier in the video someone said you need to earn at least $5k a month to live in SF. I wonder how much money that lady earns handing out drugs to dope fiends. Bet she's putting it in a house that's worth like $1.2 million now.

Anonymous

whoever was playing the piano around the 12min mark was goin crazy fr

Anonymous

trying to corner people into getting clean doesn't work. like she says, love opens up the opportunity for people to want to help themselves. you can't force people to stop using, they have to decide to

Jesus Sanchez

This was my thoughts exactly. I want to believe that there is help but i would like to see some stats, actual cases, or anything quantifiable otherwise it sounds like misleading

Anonymous

I think people forget how much goes into getting someone clean - harm reduction is just one piece of the pie. Most people also need a home, support network, mental healthcare, physical healthcare, and purpose. These problems will take more time than you'd think to solve them. Anyways, I really loved this one - super educational!

Anonymous

whats with this music playing while someone is talking shit is wack

Anonymous

Fantastic interviews with the harm reduction service, thanks Andrew. Good people doing good work for the love of other humans. Harm reduction is most definitely not a complete solution, but it's a step in the right direction and governments should be funding it alongside other means of support.

Anonymous

Excellent stuff

Anonymous

Ive been loving the uploads recently!! I went to your live show last year and you teased a more in depth reporting of Kelly J Patriot- im so excited for that vid to come out!

S.C. Bellenchia

Bruh this is a 6 part series. How much longer form can you get? I'm sure the uncut vids are ass

Anonymous

You have to do one on how stupid the sunset district has become ! Everyone’s in curated outfits and sucks at surfing.

Anonymous

for the effect. like the piano player stumbles the notes like the guy trying to organize his thoughts and speech

Loren Carvalho

80k per year https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/942992645

Trevor Koskela

Andrew is the premier anthropologist of our time. Capturing both the history and the consequences of our time. God bless. Wish you all the best. Peace.

Anonymous

That lady basically said all the kids are raised just like my daughter cuz “she isn’t scared blah blah” like stfu speak for yourselves not other ppl ya dumb bimbo

Loren Carvalho

Yeah, saving people’s lives is useless when compared to how annoying it is that homeless drug users exist.

Anonymous

Enablers dude this is creepy and fucked up

Anonymous

So are you saying that the number of drug users on the street is not an appropriate metric for local government to consider?

Frei Kjær

"dead people dont recover" that really hits

Anonymous

the supplies they show aren't even fancy. the point of harm reduction is safety so why would they give unsafe supplies.

Karen Vano

As an ex addict Im torn by this. We had clean needles back in SF in the late 80's &90's when i was homeless using there. But DAYUM they're giving away so much boujie shit! And addicts get a 10 pack of rigs and sell them for a couple bucks here and there so they ARE how some get $$ to use. In any event we need more mental health centers- especially detox and wound care centers AND more ability to mandate people go to them if they're laying in teh street covered in feces and gout sores

Anonymous

this was my exact thought, both are right in different ways. as an ex addict if i didnt have a kick in my ass and jail time i would be dead. but that doesnt mean we should do fuck all for struggling addicts

Anonymous

Good for speaking up about your experience since probably many of us, like myself, don't really know. My question is what did you do or what worked for you to get off of the streets? I'm assuming you are in a better place now, but I could be wrong.

Levi Blair

That 29million grant that guy was bitching about is the definition of drop in the bucket when it comes to SF annual tax revenue. 2022 tax revenue was $5,998,800,000 so that grant which was spread out to numerous harm reduction facilities makes up slightly less than 0.5% of the annual revenue. This douchebag is praising jail and everything else while complaining about the cost of harm reduction grants when his dumbass doesn't even understand that jailing those people costs boatloads more than 29million every year. Some people are either incredibly ignorant willfully or not and or just to stupid to actually take an objective look at cost versus outcome. Seriously fuck these people complaining about a one time grant that goes to helping people just because "but muh tax dollars" learn to fucking count people.

Koolio 777

Where’s part 4,5, 6 like promised? Im trying to watch the drug dealer and pimp shit

Anonymous

^^^FACTS!!! I joined Patreon for the first time...Is Andrew a bipper now ?

Jacob

Amazing that the through line for so many of these people in obtaining and maintaining a stable life was by getting a union job.

Anonymous

I joined for part 4,5,6 :(

Anonymous

I joined patron just for the rest of this doc. Series 👍🏼👍🏼

Anonymous

the piano at the end is so fucking genius. amazing.

Adam Anderson

Player is sooo bad..... So much buffering

Adam Anderson

This so hard to watch. You gotta let it buffer for double the length of the video. It's so upsetting

Anonymous

CLOWN WORLD

Anonymous

Great video. I’m learning a lot of new things through channel 5.

Anonymous

The video is showing two different sides of an argument. I’m on the white lady’s side but also I understand and get some of the stuff that guy ricci was saying and talking about…

Anonymous

Who did the piano accompaniment at 12:00 minutes? It's perfect

Anonymous

I really think you should have shown more of you're interview with Lydia and the harm reduction center in the YouTube video. Great video overall but I think we're some of the most relatable people in the whole series and you really cut them short

Anonymous

This is a tough one to watch

Anonymous

The Nordic model doesn't work if you don't also implement legally imposed rehabilitation programs instead of prison for multiple time offenders. People breaking laws in order to get drugs need help. Not easier access to drugs.

Anonymous

Yes correct El Jefe. They just don't know because they only read half the literature or something.

Anonymous

What was the purpose of interviewing Wynn? He's an idiot who is cashing in on one the worst public health crises our country has ever seen. Either you believe everyone deserves health and dignity or you don't; obviously he doesn't. But, to say he actually BELIEVES in anything is going out on a limb. Harm reduction is critical. Ask the people in Southern Indiana, who were caught in an HIV/AIDS epidemic b/c Governor Mike Pence refused to allow harm reduction... until he felt it was politically expedient. It's basic health and welfare.

kai hansen

The purpose of interviewing him was to show a point view that is incredibly common. I live in Vancouver, BC where we have a very similar situation and I hear countless people say the same things that Wynn does. I agree harm reduction is critical and Andrew seems to as well. I think that Andrew is hoping that viewers who watch this interview will realize Wynns point of view is wrong!

Anonymous

People are talking about the piano at 12:00, but it goes against a lot of your talk against media bias. Music is one of the best, if not the best, influences affecting emotion in the film medium, and it’s clear you’re trying to make people feel a certain way. Something to keep in mind, but I’m sure you know that.

Anonymous

Andrew, i think that sunglass guy is talking real g shit, and that off key classic bs muisc overlay is just distracting people off the point. ON GOD

Anonymous

u doing good work tho. Hail the prophet of the free speech. Hell yee

Anonymous

I get the intent. But man, I just can't get behind it. You wouldn't give clean razor blades to someone who cuts themselves, would you? I'd like to see the numbers of how much this actually helps reduce the number of drug addicts.

Anonymous

Its purpose is to lessen deaths and the transmission of deadly diseases. Drug addiction is a symptom of a societal issue, not the problem itself.

Molly Rose

I volunteered at a health service in Australia kind of like this. We mostly provided clean syringes and a safe place to dispose of them on top of saline and tourniquets were also available. It was confronting some days because on a few occasions people would just try to hand you their used needles with blood on them. And of course your reaction when someone hands you something is to take it from them. Luckily I never came into contact with any biohazard.

Molly Rose

Having said that, majority of people still threw their used gear away under the bridges.

Pan Fryer

We need comprehensive, engineered solutions to these massive problems. I am all about that. getting in the discord now

Anonymous

This is what journalism should be. Let both sides present their strongest arguments.

Anonymous

That harm reduction guy is a fucking joke

Anonymous

Wow. The harm reduction guy. Just wow man.

Anonymous

It's sooo wild seeing the layers that make up the (2nd) fall of San Fran. These harm reduction people seem like they legitimately care about people and while I was suuuper weirded out by it at first, the program is way more nuanced than I initially thought. (Although it's super weird to spend tax money on it. I can imagine why that would really piss people off in a state with such high taxes.) Wynn seems to be pushing for people to get well the same way he did, but it's very clear that the way he got better does not work for the mass majority of the population. His heart is in the right place tho for sure. Just another example of a long looong list of problems we are facing that stem from income inequality and companies looking out for nothing but their best interests. Channel 5 is the greatest of all time, can't wait to see the rest of this series.

Urdnot Wrex

29 million is not enough to actually push any progress into getting people off drugs, i think richie and the NPO center blonde lady are both right, but neither is arriving at the right solution that actually works

Anonymous

Just want to say that the Sf government is cashing in 10000x of what this guy is getting paid. The homeless industrial complex.

Lee Knox

My best friend was saved by harm reduction. After going to the same place for needles, he asked if they could get him help. He's 6 years clean and with a wife now. Dude is even into fly fishing now.

Ignatius Glaive

The NPO center is basically a bandaid. Like preventative care goes a long way. If an addict catches an STD and then sleeps with a non addict, those STDs spread through to the general population too. What would really help is to get them away from cities where they can access drugs and into supportive communities with stable housing but realistically, that's not gonna happen because people don't understand that that's worth funding. Ricci is literally just bullying people. He's acting like he's their boss meanwhile he's admitted to dealing. How are you gonna get arrested for dealing and come out acting superior to addicts? Not sure how he's right. He's just punching down.

Anonymous

Grew up around users and always understood to never touch and seen good friends from better backgrounds and become users . This is raw and needs to be seen to understand how easy it is to become an addict . It can happen to anyone

Anonymous

The point isn't to reduce the number of addicts, it's simply to reduce the harm done to addicts by their addiction in the same way that seat belts aren't there to make you crash less, but reduce the harm done if/when you crash. Also probably aids recovery a bit, I doubt I'd be motivated to stop using drugs if I had hepatitis C and HIV.

Anonymous

Drug addiction is both a symptom of societal failures AND the problem. But if you get a serious or fatal disease from drugs, then your chances of rehab are greatly diminished.

Anonymous

Whats the percentage of people addicted to drugs now vs before the programs in BC? I've only seen videos about the street markets selling clean drugs, and HS kids getting ahold of them and getting addicted/oding.

Anonymous

Guy in the blue shirt is a joke what he does is not helping

homebrew901

I think the guy in the blue shirt didn't get a suggestion for a detox/ rehab because deep down they knew he wasn't being serious. Or they've seen his videos before and recognized him. My issue is the addicts take the clean works and then just dump them on the street for children to step on or get into. They're operating on this liberal dream fantasy that everyone is a good person when they're not. Harm reduction is lowkey enabling but they compartmentalize it with the "well at least they won't spread disease" bit they all tell themselves.

homebrew901

Probably a former addict who tells themselves that they're being a good person by "help preventing disease" when he straight up just said he'll teach someone how to shoot up. It's literally enabling but they compartmentalize it in their brain to tell themselves what they're doing is good.

homebrew901

Yes it is. It's clearly enabling. But they compartmentalize it in their mind so they'll feel like a good person. That's what liberalism/ leftism is all about.

homebrew901

Seriously she's one of those people who'd go on social media and brag about her kids wanting to become trans. These people are as mentally ill as the addicts.

homebrew901

If she really believes in health she'd work on not being obese. I bet if Andrew brought it up she'd get mad and say he's fat shaming.

Anonymous

You're a fucking 🤡 and with your full name and profile pic, hilarious

Anonymous

How is that telling themselves? Preventing disease and other secondary consequences of drug use saves a massive amount of resources in the long run.

Anonymous

You’re not lying but also fuck you and what’s anyone on here going to do about it. You’re a drop in the bucket ‘Luis’ there’s a million of yous.

Anonymous

To you morons, enabling is stopping people from dying. Think about what you're saying. Even if you don't care about their lives (i doubt you do) it helps keep them out of hospitals and ER which we would be paying for.

Anonymous

That woman is an enabler and a moron … I hope her daughter gets into drugs so she can realize the bullshit she’s pushing

Anonymous

i somewhat agree with you. but you have to keep in mind that opioid withdrawals are deadly. are you killing them by giving them drugs or are you killing them by not giving them drugs? both are true, but by enabling them they're at least gonna see another day, another day to maybe start turning their life around

Anonymous

“love, support, and compassion actually works. people don’t get sober because they’re ashamed, people who stay sober do it because they love” what an optimistic understanding of addiction - i had so much love, support, and compassion coming my way for the 5 years i spent addicted to heroin. i did not stay sober because i was “learning to love myself.” very nice idea, but sorry, you can’t “hope” the debilitating drug addiction away, and no amount of needles you give to an addict is going to get them sober.

Anonymous

Interview the author of "San Fransicko"

Anonymous

its not meant to get them sober. it is meant to keep them alive and provide opportunities to get help. building rapport and trust with even one person who is willing to help, that is the point. that way when somebody becomes ready to get clean, they know where to go and how to do it. dead people don't recover

Anonymous

Ricky has good physique. Good for him

lavender F

idk if its bc im high but i couldt understand a word the guy in the blue shirt & hat was saying lol

Vernon T. Waldrip

Man… if one could get high off of cognitive dissonance, a quick spin through this comments section would create a whole new Tenderloin district in every town in America. Good Christ, we are fucked.