Overdoses didn't drop literally at all, MASSIVE amounts of the "safe supply" are being diverted (eg. immediately sold to drug seekers, mostly new ones since they're weaker than anything else you can buy on the street and also sent in massive quantities overseas starting new epidemics). It created a new black market (certain pharmacists and managers or low income housing are corroborating to have people go get the drugs from their pharmacy/prescribe them to people because the pharmacists get a kickback for every prescription filled, person watched taking drugs). The drug dealers sit outside the dirty pharmacies and immediately buy the pills, then turn around and give that person fentanyl, which they're legally allowed to have and go use in the middle of the mall. Societal safety has also dropped as now you can even politely ask the violent, mentally ill junkie to please not smoke meth directly in front of that school, or inside that restaurant. It actually took less than a year for EVERYTHING to become even more shit and immediately face massive backlash from everyone outside the program.
"Harm reduction" is also devastating to the community. They drop one of the safe injection sites in a community and the community is immediately destroyed. They purposely try to spread them out into "good" communities because localizing all these services create, what Snoop Dogg called "the worst place he has ever seen in his life" when he was visiting Vancouvers DTES. So they put them in random, everyday neighborhoods. How bad can that be? Well now transients flock to the area (especially in the cities where drugs aren't legal, because they almost always are "safe zones" where you won't be arrested). Even when they're open these places don't have security, enforcers, anyone to make them actually use their drugs inside and move along. Outside of active hours they stay loitering around the neighborhood so suddenly you have a homeless hotspot, and not just homeless but specifically the drug addicted ones. Now there's more crime in said areas, property damage and assaults increase, kids are having to step over OD's to go to school, needles all over alleys. The safe injection sites have no responsibility, nor do they do anything at all, to address the chaos that gets added outside. The police won't respond because "at least they're in one spot, and it's a safe zone". Then the violent drug gangs move in, because that's where all their clients are, and start fighting over turf. Now innocent mothers are accidentally being shot in the head.
People point to Portugal and go "well see, drugs don't get you arrested and it's paradise!!" and skip over the fact that no, when you get caught with drugs you get shown programs instead of arrested but it's NOT a free reign drug pit. They have deeply involved, mandatory treatments programs that are THE main aspect that actually helps solve the issues.
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