California Peace Coalition to Expose Drug & Homeless Misinformation at 10 am Monday August 16 event at Sheraton Grand in Sacramento

João Goulão, head of Portugal’s drug policy, says public use of hard drugs results in arrest.

At 10 am at the Sheraton Grand Hotel in Sacramento, parents of children killed by fentanyl, and of homeless children addicted to fentanyl, will debunk misinformation about the drug death crisis which killed 93,000 people in the U.S. last year, up from 71,000 in 2019, and 17,000 in 2000.

Advocates of drug decriminalization and Housing First policies claim:

1. Portugal legalized drug use.

2. “Safe Injection Sites” like ones that exist in Netherlands and other nations are proven to reduce drug deaths.

3. Homelessness is caused by high rents not addiction.

Members of the new state-wide California Peace Coalition will show that these are myths. They will provide evidence to California legislators and staff of the following:

1. People caught using hard drugs in Lisbon, Portugal are arrested and required to appear before a Commission for the Dissaussion of Drug Addiction, and drug dealers are sent to prison;

2. There are fewer than 150 people allowed to use heroin in Netherlands, which has centralized and universal psychiatric and addiction care system, which California lacks, and that simply providing homeless drug addicts with heroin, fentanyl, and meth will worsen the addiction crisis and may increase drug deaths.

3. Addiction and untreated mental illness are the two main drivers of homelessness in California, along with family disaffiliation. Rents increased in Miami, New York, and other big American cities while the number of sheltered and unsheltered homeless declined. The reason homelessness rose 31% in California and declined 18% in the rest of the U.S. is because California state government and county governments have refused to build sufficient homeless shelters.

To reserve your spot at the press event, please email Gabrielle Haight.