Newsom vetoes bill to set up drug overdose prevention programs in some California cities

Gavin Newsom on Monday vetoed a controversial bill that would have allowed supervised injection site pilot programs in Los Angeles, San Francisco and Oakland, in efforts to prevent drug overdose deaths and connect people to treatment for addiction. The number of safe injection sites that would have been authorized by the bill could have induced a “world of unintended consequences,” Newsom wrote in his veto message. Lawmakers this month sent Newsom one of the most politically challenging and closely watched proposals of the legislative session, Senate Bill 57, which state Sen. Scott Wiener said he wrote as a way to curb overdose deaths in California through safe injection sites, also called overdose prevention programs. Let’s get them into treatment programs, instead of making it easier or more accessible to do drugs.” A coalition of treatment specialists, healthcare groups and civil rights organizations argued that safe injection sites would save lives by giving people with addiction a safe place to use drugs under the supervision of trained professionals, who could also make referrals for treatment. In his veto message, Brown said California didn’t have enough drug treatment programs, and he instead called for “incentives and sanctions” to effectively address the crisis.