Dr. Mikhail Kogan
September 29, 2021
I am in full agreement with the Sept. 24 editorial “A safe space to save lives.” My 10-plus years of experience, on the front lines, providing health care to drug users and overdose victims has proved to me that the current approach of trying to lock everyone up is not working. The “war on drugs” is an abject failure.
D.C. should decriminalize drug possession and, heeding the advice of The Post, fully embrace a harm-reduction approach to drug use. The best way to help people using drugs is to stop arresting them and, instead, treat them with dignity, giving them the health-care services they need to survive and thrive in our city. Safe injection sites are one very important way to provide the care that all residents deserve.
Decriminalizing the possession of all drugs is another important way to finally end the disparate impact of drug laws on our poorest communities.
Mikhail Kogan, Washington
The writer is an associate professor of medicine at George Washington University, and medical director
at the GW Center for Integrative Medicine