Culture can sound like an abstract concept, but it matters for drug policy.
In San Francisco and other liberal cities, the opposite shift has happened with hard drug use.
When I asked people living on the streets why they are in San Francisco, the most common response was that they knew they could avoid the legal and social penalties that often follow addiction.
Some came from as close as Oakland, believing that San Francisco was more permissive.
As Keith Humphreys, a drug policy expert at Stanford University, told me, San Francisco “is on the extreme of a pro-drug culture.”
Persons:
Keith Humphreys, San Francisco “, ”
Organizations:
Stanford University
Locations:
Francisco, San Francisco, Oakland