The last two weeks there have been letters commenting on my campaign for State Assembly 18 and my opposition to Senate Bill (SB) 57, which would’ve enabled legal access to fentanyl, heroin, and other drugs in regulated “safe injection sites.” I would like to clarify Hunter Cobb’s response (“Vote for Mindy; End the drug culture,” Sept. 1; https://alamedasun.com/letters/16030), that I do not think this matter is resolved. I fully expect Governor Gavin Newsom, Assemblywoman Mia Bonta and State Senator Scott Wiener, to bring it up again in a modified form. I intend to continue the fight not only to stop SB57, but to get rid of the drug culture. We need to help our fellow citizens get off the drugs and become productive contributors to our future.
Second, in Steven Mason’s letter (“Two Birds One Stone,” Sept. 8; https://alamedasun.com/letters/16067), he talks of the “failed Drug War.” We have all heard this many times. But there never was a “War on Drugs.” There was a nasty mass incarceration of low-level street drug-dealers, while Bush-league institutions of government and finance promoted a crack cocaine epidemic in our cities in the 1980’s and 1990’s.
The big players were given free reign. For example, British bank HSBC, identified in Senate hearings as the primary bank laundering money for the Mexican drug cartels, was given a slap on the wrist. Attorney General Eric Holder’s excuse for not prosecuting was that it would’ve brought down the entire financial system. Well, if our financial system is so corrupt that it depends on drug money, then it’s time to clean it up!
I don’t know what California Attorney General Rob Bonta’s excuse is for not prosecuting big drug criminals like McKesson, and Johnson and Johnson. They got off with a money settlement for their massive promotion of opioids. I say a few bankers and pharmaceutical company executives going to jail would be a healthy thing for the country. But don’t hold your breath under the reign of the Bontas!