Democrat John Fetterman Pushed ‘Safe’ Heroin Injections Sites in 2018 Video

Democratic Senate candidate Lt. Gov. John Fetterman (D-PA) is welcomed on stage during a r
Nate Smallwood/Getty Images

Pennsylvania Democrat gubernatorial candidate John Fetterman pushed “safe” heroin injection sites in a 2018 video posted to YouTube.

“It’s important as we as a society have all the options on the table, including needle exchange, which is only technically legal in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, and even safe injections sites that are being considered like, say, in Philadelphia,” Fetterman said in the video, discovered by the Republican National Committee. 

Fetterman, who is a radical Democrat running against Republican challenger Dr. Mehmet Oz, also said he suggested the idea to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. 

Mehmet Oz

Mehmet Oz takes part in a forum for Republican candidates for U.S. Senate in Pennsylvania at the Pennsylvania Leadership Conference in Camp Hill, Pennsylvania, April 2, 2022. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

“I’ll never forget the meeting I had down at the DSCC where, you know, evaluate you and your candidacy. And one of the things that I kept talking about was the opioid crisis. And they’re just like, ‘wait, what are you talking about? Like, you want to legalize heroin?'” Fetterman said:

Fetterman believes it is “important that we as a society” provide government-funded drug dens, and also decriminalizing drugs “across the board,” including meth and heroin.

“I’m pro legalizing marijuana, but I go even further than some of my colleagues because I’m for decriminalizing across the board. I see it as a public-health issue, not a criminal issue,” Fetterman stated. “I’ve seen firsthand for the last 14 years the effects it has on families, I’ve seen people overdosing.”

According to NPR, “efforts to open the first ‘supervised injection site’ in the U.S. for users of heroin, fentanyl and other opiates experienced a setback this week after a federal court ruled that it would violate federal law.”

Under President Joe Biden, more than 100,000 Americans, an all time record high, died from drug overdoses in 2021, CDC data shows. The number of overdose deaths grew in 2021 from 2020’s roughly 91,000 overdose deaths.

Follow Wendell Husebø on Twitter @WendellHusebø. He is the author of Politics of Slave Morality.

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