Former drug dealer speaks out against San Francisco drug scene: It's becoming a place for 'druggy tourism'

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Former drug dealer–turned-activist Ricci Wynne spoke out against harm reduction policies and potential safe consumption sites in San Francisco on "Jesse Watters Primetime."

Wynne argued politicians are making the nation's drug crisis worse by "moving the moral goalpost further away from where it should be," adding they need to focus on abstinence-based programs and not harm reduction models.

Wynne told host Jesse Watters San Francisco is considering proceeding with plans to create safe consumption sites, which would allow users to take illicit drugs in a medically supervised environment. 

"[It's] going to make the problem worse. It's already created such a buzz that people are coming here to San Francisco in droves for what I like to call druggie tourism," he said. "They come here because they know the consequences are minuscule if any, and they can come here [and] just use openly."

"And when all the drug addicts come here, then what follows is more drug dealers."

Watters asked Ricci about a viral video he took in 2022 showing children getting off a bus and walking past a long line of addicts and junkies on the sidewalk to get home from school. 

"How are these young children processing [this]?" Watters asked. 

"I can only imagine," Wynne responded. "You know, I grew up in a household where there was a lot of drug use and it had a negative impact on my life, so I'm imagining that these kids that are just walking to and from school, walking with their parents to go to the mall or go get some ice cream or whatever, and they're forced to see this type of grotesque drug use because, let's be honest, that's what it is. I mean, it's not just the run-of-the-mill." 

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He described how he sees users smoking a joint on the sidewalk or shooting up methamphetamine or fentanyl into their necks on the street. 

"It's pretty grotesque," he added.

San Francisco Mayor London Breed declared a state of emergency in the city's Tenderloin district in 2021 in response to drug overdose deaths. 

Breed said the city had 650 overdose deaths in 2021 and at least 700 in 2020.