Editorial —
Lisa Raville, aka “Dr. Death”
When Mike Johnston assumed the mayorship of Denver in 2023, he announced that he would make homelessness in Denver the absolute highest priority for his Administration for the first six plus months of his term. In 2024 he expanded the scope of his concentration to include the tens of thousands of illegal immigrants pouring into the city from across the border in Texas. He indicated the City would spend whatever is needed to assist the people he dubbed the “newcomers.”
The two groups will eventually meld into one another, as when the newcomers are cut off from the free rental subsidy the city provides, they too will fit into the category of “residents experiencing homelessness.” So jealously has Johnston guarded his future homeless newcomers that he publicly threatened to send the Denver Police to the Denver border, augmented by ferocious Valkyries from the Highlands neighborhood, to meet and repulse ICE agents coming to Denver to deport any newcomers.
In last Fall’s election Denver voters shot down the mayor’s proposed sales tax increase to help the mayor meet his housing development goals. Instead of modifying and lessening those goals he has told all city departments they must cut their budgets by 12.5%. This should cause all services provided to citizens to significantly drop, but homelessness, of course, supersedes all other needs of Denver’s citizens.
Some Denver residents who are not “newcomers” or homeless have begun to wonder what exactly the city was going to do for them. That is when the Denver City Council had a brilliant idea of expanding the needle exchange centers from three to an infinite amount in every neighborhood. On January 13, 2025, in an 8 to 5 vote, the City Council voted to allow an unlimited amount of these centers and even included a lift on the restriction of no needle exchange centers being within 1,000 feet from a school or daycare center.
At a needle exchange center a drug addict can turn in dirty needles and syringes for new ones along with other drug paraphernalia free of charge. Advocates for this program argue this will limit the spread of HIV and Hepatitis C infections. Of course, an addict could buy his or her own needles and syringes but that would cost money and advocates indicate the program will free up more money for items that drug addicts value, like more drugs.
The best part from the addict’s perspective is that the staff at these sites are forbidden from bringing up the subject of treatment for the addiction unless the addicts foolishly bring up the subject themselves.
The new ordinance also does away with the 1997 law prohibition of having needle exchange centers within a thousand yards of a school or daycare center. Not that the provision was really an impediment as the city simply granted exceptions when asked.
The passage of the needle exchange ordinance is a triumph for Lisa Raville the executive director of The Harm Reduction Action Center. Her critics have dubbed her “Dr. Death.” having earned her doctorate not from an educational center but the mean streets of Chicago and Denver. She views herself as a tireless advocate for intravenous drug users, caring for their needs and wants.
She in many ways resembles John Parvansky the CEO of the Colorado Coalition for the Homeless. In his 37 years of service from 1985 until he retired in 2022 he grew homelessness from a relatively manageable problem into a behemoth social quagmire that literally has become the primary concern of the entire city government.
Dr. Death has headed up the Harm Reduction Acton Center since 2009. In that time the number of intravenous drug users and drug overdose deaths has steadily increased. In the last four years alone the number of drug overdose deaths has nearly doubled while recently decreasing nationally.
Dr. Death’s needle exchange centers are the first part of a three-part scheme. Next up is turning the needle exchange centers into supervised “safe use sites” which will eventually be provided with a “regulated drug supply” of quality heroin and meth.
Under the full program addicts will have across the city places to go for free drugs, needles, and syringes at taxpayer expense. Addiction and drug deaths should skyrocket.
You do not have to guess what the result will be because the full “harm reduction” program was introduced in British Columbia by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, As a result deaths in British Columbia from drug overdoses have risen to unprecedented levels. The disastrous results of the Canadian “harm reduction” program is one of the reasons the Prime Minister is resigning come this March.
To the shock of some in Denver, Mayor Johnston vetoed Dr. Death’s needle exchange plan on the evening of January 14, 2025. Apparently, the mayor does not want anything to interfere with his homeless and “newcomer” initiatives. Don’t think Dr. Death is going anywhere Like Parvensky, she is in it for the long haul. She will be back next year and the year after until her goal of making Denver the intravenous drug user capitol of the United States. God help us all.
— Editorial Board
