Voters in Red and Blue States Repudiate Lenient Drug Policies

An electorate that has grown increasingly restive over flagrant drug use and public disorder sent a sharp message through the ballot box on Tuesday.

In state and local elections, voters approved tougher drug penalties and rejected measures to legalize recreational marijuana and psychedelics. San Francisco, one of the most progressive cities in the country, elected a mayor with no government experience who vowed to move aggressively against drug dealers.

The results are the latest indications that the American public, besieged by a deadly addiction crisis decades in the making, is growing weary of experiments with more permissive drug policies and their visible impact on residential neighborhoods and downtown businesses.

It is a sentiment that President-elect Donald J. Trump echoed on the campaign trail. “Our once-great cities have become unlivable, unsanitary nightmares, surrendered to the homeless, the drug-addicted, and the violent and dangerously deranged,” he said in one speech. “We are making the many suffer for the whims of a deeply unwell few.”

The latest election results continue a trend seen across the country this year. In March, San Francisco voters approved proposals to screen welfare recipients for drug use and to expand police powers. New measures in cities and states across the country, such as Idaho, West Virginia and Philadelphia, clamped down on programs that distribute safe drug supplies, like sterile syringes, to prevent users from dying.

“The philosophy that the only people who matter in drug policy are people who use drugs, and the only thing that matters for them is just making sure they can continue using without overdosing, has been completely rejected,” said Keith Humphreys, a professor at Stanford who is an expert on drug policy and treatment.