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Greater Harlem Coalition Logo

December 6, 2023

STRIVING FOR A HARLEM WHERE ALL PEOPLE CAN THRIVE

PLACE OF RESIDENCE + PLACE OF DEATH

For People Who Overdosed in 2022

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COLUMBIA COCAINE PRODUCTION

Record Production Levels in 2022

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Colombian Cocaine Output Soars to Record of About 1,700 Tons based on analysis of UN satellite monitoring. This is the largest amount of coca planted in recorded history. New satellite photos show the amount of land planted with coca, the raw material for making the drug, rose to 230,000 hectares (570,000 acres), in 2022, up 13% from the previous year.

That’s enough to produce 1,700 tons of refined cocaine.

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The supply glut has led to rising purity in Europe and the US and has turned once-peaceful Ecuador into one of the most violent countries in the world, as cartels fight for control of ports and routes.

The Colombian president has said that the decades-old war on drugs pursued by Washington and Bogota has failed. His government is currently seeking talks with the nation’s main drug-trafficking groups, in the hope of ending six decades of civil conflict though peace accords.

A HARLEM RESIDENT'S RESPONSE

The NYT's Polemical Celebration of a Flawed Study 

A response to "Do Safe Injection Sites Increase Crime? There’s Finally an Answer,” by Maia Szalavitz:

On the surface, the editorial "Do Safe Injection Sites Increase Crime? There’s Finally an Answer,” appears to be evidence-based. But don’t be fooled. The authors of the research paper on which the editorial is based include a huge caveat at the very top of their piece in JAMA: 



“Consistent with the city’s commitment to ensuring clients could use the centers free from law enforcement interference, large, statistically significant declines in police narcotics enforcement around the OPCs were observed.”



Free from enforcement interference!? You may wonder what this means. 



It means NYPD stopped enforcing. It means that vast amounts of illegal dealing and open-air consumption take place near On Point every single day (and vast amounts of daily cleaning up of human feces and used syringes by the doormen and maintenance staff) without the police making arrests. 



Is this really the “Eureka” moment we’ve been waiting for, as the editorial suggests? Absolutely not. The NYT’s editorial staff’s unrelenting support for harm reduction reveals an unfortunate ideological commitment by the Times that is not evidence-based. The editorial staff should go to West 126th street outside On Point, and look at the dystopian scene there, look at the school right across the street, and remind themselves of an important code of moral conduct. “If I as a journalist wouldn’t be willing to have my own children attend ABC School across the street from On Point, and have my children see the open air drug dealing and consumption each morning and afternoon, then it’s morally wrong for me to advocate in support of the On Point site on East 126th street.”

-- Hudson R.

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