Santa Monica Residents Push Back Against Outdoor Needle Distribution Site for Homeless

Santa Monica Residents Push Back Against Outdoor Needle Distribution Site for Homeless
A homeless man in Santa Monica, Calif., on June 2, 2023. John Fredricks/The Epoch Times
Rudy Blalock
Updated:
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Some residents in Santa Monica, an idyllic beach town in Southern California, are pushing for an outdoor county-operated program that distributes clean syringes weekly to homeless drug users near the city’s parks to be moved indoors to a county-owned facility.

The “overdose prevention program”—which is overseen by the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health’s Division of Substance Abuse Prevention and Control—currently distributes syringes, first aid kits, opioid overdose reversal medication, and hygiene kits every Friday at three city parks, according to a spokesperson for the department.