A Republican candidate for New York City council doesn’t want his city to become America’s second location for a supervised drug injection site, or a “sanctuary city for drug users.”
Bob Capano told That Daily Caller on Monday that he wants to stop all efforts by New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and council to push a drug injection site on that city’s residents.
Last Friday, Seattle became the first U.S. city to approve what was described by The Washington Post as a “safe” injection site, where drug addicts can legally inject heroin under supervision from staff.
Seattle is modeling its facility on North America’s first supervised injection site, located about 120 miles north, in Vancouver, British Columbia.
That experiment has created chronic controversy — not only about the program’s supposed goal of reducing opiate deaths but from local residents who have to walk over drug paraphernalia and stoned addicts on the sidewalks.
Last year, the New York City Council allocated $100,000 in taxpayer funds to study opening “Heroin Injection Facilities” in the five boroughs.
Capano is a candidate for the 43rd district (Bay Ridge, Dyker Heights, Bensonhurst).
“I will have to stop saying, ‘let’s not be the first in New York [with a drug injection site],'” Capano told TheDC. “Now I’m saying, ‘let’s not be the second [city].'”
Capano says de Blasio, despite being an advocate for many liberal causes, has been non-committal about injection sites.
“So maybe that’s a silver lining,” he says.
Capano, an adjunct professor of political science at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, says the site will break federal law and make New York “a sanctuary city for junkies and addicts.”
He says the mayor and council “should be spending their time, energy, and our taxpayer money solving the homeless crisis and getting addicts the professional help they need instead of creating taxpayer funded shooting galleries in our neighborhoods.” Capano also questioned how law enforcement could enforce drug laws with city hall providing a place for drug users to shoot up.
Capano, a former senior staffer for two Republican members of Congress, Vito Fossella and Bob Turner, said the federal Controlled Substance Act makes it unlawful to “knowingly open, lease, rent, use, or maintain any place, whether permanently or temporarily, for the purpose of manufacturing, distributing, or using any controlled substance.”
Capano added, “Any funds spent on this issue should be used to break the addicts dependency on drugs, not taking a step that encourages heroin use. These people need help, hope, and rehab. We are not helping them by sentencing them to a life of addiction.”
Guardian Angels Founder Curtis Sliwa, successful businessman and former Republican Mayoral candidate John Catsimatidis, former Brooklyn GOP Chairman Craig Eaton, and former Rep. Bob Turner are co-chairing Capano’s campaign.