„Sie retten jeden Tag Leben“: Demonstranten demonstrieren nach den Finanzierungskürzungen der Ford-Regierung für überwachte Verbrauchsstellen

Framing is all wrong, even if the motivation is noble.

Unfortunate fact is, relatively few care about whether supervised consumption sites save lives. Many care more about their neighborhoods being safe, crime-free, without needles littered everywhere endangering them and their kids. Where they can walk down the street without fearing for their safety, and where a consumption site opening in the vicinity doesn’t immediately cause the property value to crater for obvious reasons. In short, they care about the social damage.

The conservatives understood this, and used it to shut down safe consumption because people saw what these sites were doing to the neighborhoods they were in and feared a repeat if a site opened close to them.

Pro-supervised consumption folks need to learn this too – approach it from a ‚limiting social damage‘ angle. Advocate for supervised consumption as a means of reducing dangerous and unsupervised drug consumption in places the public encounter regularly, like coffee shops and libraries. Also emphasize the public safety aspect of the sites you’re asking for – make clear that these sites would be well-policed and monitored to prevent social damage from spreading beyond these facilities.

Messaging matters.